Hiya!

A search through my university's catalogue has found a single, mixed-but-generally-positive academic peer review of Pauwels' work. The review is by Alvin Finkel, Professor Emeritus for History at Athabasca University, a Canadian long-distance university. Finkel's details can be found here. Finkel is a social historian with a decidedly left-wing slant. He appears to be well respected and is a fairly prolific academic, largely writing in the field of Canadian social history. It should be noted that Finkel has been involved in some controversy prior regarding a textbook he co-authored, the details of which can be found in Margaret Conrad's article "Textbook Wars: Canadian Style" in the 2003 issue of Canadian Issues.

Finkel's review, the details of which can be found below, is generally positive of Pauwels' work, describing it as a "mostly successful... attempt to construct a counter-narrative." He seems to be largely positive to the arguments made by Pauwels with respect to the support of US corporations for the Nazi regime and the unwillingness of the US government to penalise corporate support for Nazi Germany, stating respectively:

"Pauwels marshals the considerable evidence of the moral and financial support of leading American corporate officials in the 1930s for the Hitler regime, and their involvement in strengthening the German war machine once war broke out, an involvement that did not abate when the US itself joined the Allies as an enemy of Nazi Germany. "

and,

"It is clear that the American state was unwilling at any time, whether before the war, during the war, or in the aftermath of the war, to penalize in any way American corporate leaders who actively supported Nazi rearmament. Government leaders were happy to maintain Nazis in position of authority throughout both industry and government if only as an alternative to the popular demands among urban workers for democratic socialism."

Finkel is, however, critical of Pauwels in a number of areas, being less-than supportive of Pauwels' arguments wrt: the American government. Finkel states that "the Roosevelt administration, while it may not have approved of US corporations continuing to help the Nazis, pretended that there was no ongoing relationship between American subsidiaries in Germany and American headquarters." He does not, however, support Pauwels' arguments wrt: US gov't support, stating:

"There are lacunae in this narrative. Pauwels weaves back and forth between the state and the corporations, only at times being clear about the relationship between the two. The result is a book with rather little nuance. This is particularly true with regards to the figure of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration more broadly."

Finkel argues that US gov't unwillingness to penalise corporate supporters of the Nazis was largely due to the widespread hope that "Hitler would aim his guns at the Soviet Union, destroy Bolshevism, and open up the Communist giant to foreign capital, while destroying workers' illusions everywhere that they would ever get away with trying to end capital's reign." - Rather than being due to the Roosevelt government itself supporting the Nazi administration. Additionally, Finkel presents the counter-argument that the Roosevelt administration had been opposed to Nazism for some time, arguing that,

"Roosevelt, though more focused on the Japanese threat than the Nazis, had made overtures to Britain in late 1937 about using naval blockades to "quarantine" aggressor nations."

Due to the policy of appeasement that was active at the time, Finkel states that Roosevelt was discouraged from taking a strong anti-fascist line because he was "Without internal or external allies for a bellicose policy regarding the dictators, and obviously unwilling to make common cause with Stalin, the major world leader opposed to Hitler."

All in all, Finkel is generally positive towards Pauwels' work, agreeing that there was widespread corporate support for Nazi Germany prior to, and during, the Second World War. He is, however, critical of Pauwels' arguments wrt: US government support.

I hope this helps!

Sources:

Finkel, A; Conrad, M. "Textbook Wars: Canadian Style." Canadian Issues (Oct 2003): n/a.

Pauwels, Jacques R; Finkel A. "The Myth of the Good War: America in the Second World War." Labour 55 (Spring 2005): 290-293.