The Department of History presents “When CEOs Were Removable: FDR and the Wartime Government Take Over of Montgomery Ward,” a lecture with Lisa Phillips.
In December 1944, as World War II dragged on, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered his secretary of war to seize properties belonging to the Montgomery Ward company because the company refused to comply with a labor agreement. Assistant Professor Lisa Phillips of Indiana State University will discuss the legal and ethical implications of FDR’s move, as well as the relationship between the government and the business community during this pivotal time in American history.