Appendix A: A Parallel Timeline

This timeline provides a direct, year-by-year comparison of key events and indicators in Germany and the United States. While both nations experienced extraordinary economic turnarounds, the data below highlights the different paths they took—one built on exclusion and centralized control, the other on inclusive mobilization and democratic innovation.

Year	Nazi Germany	United States
1932	Unemployment: 30.1% (6.1M). Real weekly earnings index: 100. Hitler loses presidential election.	Unemployment: 23.6%. Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President.
1933	Hitler appointed Chancellor. Reichstag Fire Decree suspends civil liberties. First concentration camps open. Unemployment falls to 24.5%.	FDR's "First 100 Days" of the New Deal. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established. Unemployment: 20.9%.
1935	Nuremberg Laws institutionalize racial antisemitism. Conscription reintroduced in defiance of Treaty of Versailles. Unemployment falls below 10%.	Social Security Act passed. Works Progress Administration (WPA) created. Unemployment: 17.0%.
1936	Four-Year Plan begins, directing the entire economy toward rearmament. Real weekly earnings index: 112.	Economy shows signs of recovery, but FDR's court-packing plan creates political backlash. Unemployment: 14.3%.
1938	Kristallnacht. "Atonement" levy of over 1 billion RM confiscated from German Jews. Annexation of Austria (Anschluss).	"Roosevelt Recession" stalls recovery. Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage. Unemployment rises to 19.0%.
1939	Invasion of Poland begins WWII. Real weekly earnings index: 118 (driven by long overtime hours).	Economy begins to recover. US declares neutrality but public opinion shifts against Germany. Unemployment: 17.2%.
1940	Conquest of France. Battle of Britain begins. Economy is now fully dedicated to war.	FDR's "Arsenal of Democracy" speech. First peacetime draft initiated. Unemployment: 14.6%.
1942	Forced labor from occupied territories becomes essential to the war economy. Wannsee Conference finalizes the "Final Solution."	Pearl Harbor leads to US entry into war. Office of Price Administration begins rationing. Women enter the workforce in millions. Unemployment plummets to 4.7%.
1943	Defeat at Stalingrad marks a turning point. Total War mobilization declared by Goebbels. Allied bombing campaign intensifies.	Aircraft production: 85,898. Liberty Ship build times fall from months to weeks. Women's share of labor force nears its peak.
1944	Allied invasion of Normandy. German war production peaks despite bombing, largely due to brutal exploitation of slave labor.	Aircraft production: 96,318. GI Bill of Rights is passed. Unemployment: 1.2%. War bond sales peak, funding the war effort.
1945	Hitler commits suicide; Germany surrenders. The nation lies in ruins, its industrial capacity and civil society destroyed.	Victory in Europe and Japan. The US emerges as the world's dominant economic and military power, responsible for nearly 50% of global industrial output.