> What I'm trying to figure out is: was the U.S. as the standard story goes
> a
> weak military power prior to Pearl Harbor? Or was it a strong military
> power
> who was unprepared for this particular war?
Strong power, weak military. US military spending was 1.1% of GDP from 1930-39, then skyrocketed to 40% in 1944, then declined to 7.7% by 1946. (The US Peace Dividend, Table A1, pp 55-56, Chapter 3: Macroeconomic Impacts of Disarmament and the Peace Dividend in the US Economy. Robert M. Coen and Bert G. Hickman.) 40-45% is pretty much the upper limit for wartime mobilization, because you still need to produce basic non-military goods (clothing, food for workers, tools for shops, etc). Most sources I've seen put US per capita GDP in 1940 at three times the German average and ten times the Japanese average. The US alone generated almost four times the output of all the Axis combined.
-- DRR