MARC record from Internet Archive

LEADER: 03676cam a2200373 i 4500
001 2012043539
003 DLC
005 20131120075206.0
008 130107s2013 nyu b 001 0beng
010 $a 2012043539
020 $a9780195316926 (hardback)
040 $aDLC$beng$cDLC$erda$dDLC
042 $apcc
043 $an-us---
050 00 $aCT275.F68$bC87 2013
082 00 $a338.7/6292092$aB$223
084 $aHIS036060$aBIO003000$2bisacsh
100 1 $aCurcio, Vincent.
245 10 $aHenry Ford /$cVincent Curcio.
260 $aNew York :$bOxford University Press,$c2013.
300 $axiii, 306 pages ;$c22 cm.
336 $atext$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$2rdacarrier
490 0 $aLives and legacies series
520 $a"Most great figures in American history reveal great contradictions, and Henry Ford is no exception. He championed his workers, offering unprecedented wages, yet crushed their attempts to organize. Virulently anti-Semitic, he never employed fewer than 3,000 Jews. An outspoken pacifist, he made millions producing war materials. He urbanized the modern world, and then tried to drag it back into a romanticized rural past he'd helped to destroy. As the American auto industry struggles to reinvent itself, Vincent Curcio's timely biography offers a wealth of new insight into the man who started it all. Henry Ford not only founded Ford Motor Company but institutionalized assembly line production and, some would argue, created the American middle class. By constantly improving his product and increasing sales, Ford was able to lower the price of the automobile until it became a universal commodity. He paid his workers so well that, for the first time in history, the people who manufactured a complex industrial product could own one. This was "Fordism"--social engineering on a vast scale. But, as Curcio displays, Ford's anti-Semitism would forever stain his reputation. Hitler admired him greatly, both for his anti-Semitism and his autocratic leadership, displaying Ford's picture in his bedroom and keeping a copy of Ford's My Life and Work by his bedside. Nevertheless, Ford's economic and social initiatives, as well as his deft handling of his public image, kept his popularity high among Americans. He offered good pay, good benefits, English language classes, and employment for those who struggled to find jobs--handicapped, African-American, and female workers. Such was his popularity that in 1923, the homespun, clean-living, xenophobic Henry Ford nearly won the Republican presidential nomination. This new volume in the Lives and Legacies series explores the full impact of Ford's indisputable greatness, the deep flaws that complicate his legacy, and what he means for our own time"--$cProvided by publisher.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 8 $aMachine generated contents note: -- Introduction -- 1. Henry Ford - How It All Began -- 2. Walking into the Future -- 3. Cooking with Gas -- 4. The Ford Motor Company -- 5. The Model T and the Coming of Mass Production -- 6. The Big Issues - Peace and War - Consolidating Power -- 7. Modern Times -- 8. Has Something Come Between Us? -- 9. Things he was Thinking About -- 10. Everything Old is New Again -- 11. Efflorescence and Hard Endings -- Conclusion.
600 10 $aFord, Henry,$d1863-1947.
650 0 $aIndustrialists$zUnited States$vBiography.
650 0 $aAutomobile industry and trade$zUnited States$xHistory.
651 0 $aUnited States$xBiography.
650 7 $aHISTORY / United States / 20th Century.$2bisacsh
650 7 $aBIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Business.$2bisacsh