Description

Because of a combination of a protected harbor, moderate year-round temperatures, and the sleepy city of San Diego’ leaders’ willingness to make large tracts of land available to the government for the development of military installations for as little as $1.00, San Diego witnessed a slow, but steady expansion of major Army and Navy installations around the bay since World War One.  Shappee begins his story of how San Diego was preparing for war as early as the 1920’s and moved from pre-war isolationism to become a major bastion of military power in World War II.