The complete and fully detailed history of the conception, promotion, financing, design, fabrication, delivery, testing, procurement and production of the first jeeps by the American Bantam Car company for the United States Army. The 400 page book contains hundreds of photos which cover the prewar period when this most significant of American automobiles was created and produced. As much an exciting story of compelling characters as it is the first complete history, a reader will recognize many names in both the public and private which went on to fame in WWII. The book can also be seen as a near text book concerning the practical difficulties in industrial design and procurement, involving as it does the difficulty of innovators satisfying a customer with a design. A careful reader will see the dramatic transition from the ?old America? of the post Civil War era into what we like to call the ?modern times? of the post war era, just now ending. One will see the beginning of Eisenhower's ?Military-Industrial Complex'. Primarily however the book is an inspirational story of a small band of men in a tiny company, struggling for survival which accepts a gigantic challenge and succeeds brilliantly, only to be overwhelmed by the giant government and corporate interests of the time and since forgotten.