xv, 614 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., ports. ; 21 cm
Type:
Biography
Place:
United States
Date:
2006
2006, c2005
Contents:
Prologue: the legend of Henry Ford -- pt. 1. The road to fame. Farm boy ; Machinist ; Inventor ; Businessman ; Celebrity ; Entrepreneur -- pt. 2. The miracle maker. Consumer ; Producer ; Folk hero ; Reformer ; Victorian ; Politician -- pt. 3. The Flivver king. Legend ; Visionary ; Moralist ; Positive thinker ; Emperor ; Father ; Bigot -- pt. 4. The long twilight. Antiquarian ; Individualist ; Despot ; Dabbler ; Educator ; Figurehead -- Epilogue: the sage of dearborn
Summary:
Henry Ford, a major architect of modern America, has lived on in the imagination of his fellow citizens as an enduring figure of fascination, an inimitable individual, a controversial personality, and a social visionary from the moment his Model T brought the automobile to the masses and triggered the consumer revolution. Ford first made the automobile affordable, but grew skeptical of consumerism's corrosive impact on moral values; insisted on a living wage for his workers but opposed unions, established the assembly line but worried about its effect on the work ethic; welcomed African Americans to his company but was a rabid anti-Semite. Watts shows us how a Michigan farm boy emerged as one of America's richest men and one of its first mass-culture celebrities, became a folk hero to millions of ordinary citizens and yet also excited the admiration of Lenin and Hitler.--From publisher description.
