Reviewed by: Cork Wars: Intrigue and Industry in World War II by David A. Taylor Brian E. Crim (bio) Cork Wars: Intrigue and Industry in World War II By David A. Taylor. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018. Pp. 240. David Taylor's absorbing account of how a seemingly innocuous substance like cork became a critical strategic material during World War II hopefully represents a trend in historical scholarship. Cork Wars is a work of "narrative nonfiction," Taylor writes in an author's note, "combining the fact-finding of journalism with literary techniques to create a dramatic story that is also true." Focusing on individuals whose lives revolved around the cork industry, Taylor places ordinary people at the center of extraordinary events, while still producing significant scholarly work in the fields of science and technology, economic history, national security studies, immigration, and environmental history. History is filled with examples of humanity elevating the importance of a resource, exploiting it, altering its natural place in the world, and quickly moving on once it served a purpose. Cork is one such substance, but the most compelling part of Taylor's book is how families of outsiders—immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Eastern Europe—demonstrated unbelievable resilience and ingenuity in the face of hostility and deprivation at home and total war abroad. Cork Wars begins with the September 1940 industrial fire at the Crown Cork and Seal factory in Baltimore, a catastrophic event both for Charles McManus, a pioneer in the cork industry so crucial to the local economy, and for preparations for America's impending entry into World War II. With U-boats wreaking havoc on Allied shipping and the FBI hunting Nazi agents up and down the Eastern seaboard, thousands of Italian Americans working in vital industries like cork suddenly fell under suspicion. Like Japanese and German Americans, Italians eventually fell under the purview of the infamous Executive Order 9066, which allowed the government to imprison and seize the property of "enemy aliens" indefinitely. While the cause of the fire was never determined, the event underscored the importance of cork to national security. It also coincided with intelligence services on both sides of the Atlantic racing to secure access to the groves populating the Mediterranean basin, specifically the Iberian Peninsula and coastal North Africa. Why was cork so special? Initially used in construction and the beverage industry, cork became an indispensable sealant and insulator used in submarines, airplanes, tanks, and ammunition. Moreover, cork companies like Crown Cork and Seal and Armstrong Cork diversified during the war, helping build vital weapons like the B-26 Marauder. Cork Wars' complex transatlantic story is told through the eyes of three men and their families: Charles McManus Sr. and Jr., Irish immigrant [End Page 567] owners and operators of Crown Cork and Seal; Frank DiCara, a young Italian immigrant who worked for Crown and enlisted in the army when he came of age; and Melchor Marsa, a Catalonian immigrant who managed Crown's Mediterranean interests and was recruited by the newly created Office of Strategic Services to monitor Axis intentions in nominally neutral Spain and Portugal. Fearful the fragile cork trees could fall into the hands of the Axis powers and threaten war industries, the U.S. government invested in McManus Sr.'s "Cork Project," conceived with forester Wood-bridge Metcalf to transform California into a viable environment for cork. The project included enlisting thousands of Americans to lend their property for the experiment, importing and planting millions of acorns, extensive climate zone research, and a coordinated campaign between government and industry to transform the environment for strategic purposes. As the hot war concluded and a cold war took its place, cork remained an arena for competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, although the chemical revolution had the final say. Plastics and other synthetic materials ironically perfected and mass-produced by Nazi Germany diminished cork's relevance as a strategic material by the 1950s. For the McManus, DiCara, and Marsa families, cork featured prominently in their lives and defined their diverse and fascinating wartime experiences. Taylor's interviews with family members, access to personal collections, and impressive detective work in the...
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