Henry Ford (Lives and Legacies Series)

Vincent Curcio is an experienced biographer who, incidentally, also wrote a biography of Walter Chrysler. So it is no surprise that this biography is as much a story of the automobile business as it is of Henry Ford. This book is extremely well researched and presents a picture of Ford touching both his virtues and vices. The extent of research is reflected in the acknowledgments, notes, and index which take up 30% of the book.Ford was a complex person whose importance is not much realized today. For instance, many think he invented automobiles. He did not. Others think him the quintessence of the capitalist. He was not. Some have heard that he was an untutored ignoramus. He was not. His name is generally connected with automobiles, yet his influence in America may have been much larger in the agricultural field. For instance, his efforts led to the immense growth of soybean production in America and his tractors greatly multiplied the productivity of the family farmer across the board.Rather, Ford changed the automobile industry in two major ways. First, he used “assembly line” methods and other techniques to continually improve manufacture. This allowed him to reduce the price of cars, unlike his competitors, to bring them into a broader market. Second, he was a progressive in terms of social conventions. He raised the pay of his workers to unheard of heights in the early twentieth century, much to the distress of his fellow industrialists. He hired the handicapped and Blacks when industry, generally, would not. The result was that for the first time, factory workers could afford the complex products they made. He set up unique training programs and provided “social services” to his workers almost before the government got into that business. In a sense he opened the doors for workers to enter the middle class.Thought to be almost illiterate, in fact he was an intense reader. Much of his “philosophy” was based on a study of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He had a large personal library whose books were heavily marked and marginally notated by him. In some ways he was a major cause of the modern manufacturing age, yet was most comfortable recreating the rural world of his youth. His thoughts on personal healthy living sound like something written recently, and he lived a long time. Not long after he started his company he ended up owning it 100% without slipping into the clutches of the bankers and Wall Street he despised. He was the richest man in America yet spent millions on social experiments and, ultimately, created one of the largest charitable foundations.He was mercurial and obsessively controlling, insistent on having everything done his way only, yet he could change his mind in an instant and go totally in a different direction. He was secretive and eccentric, yet admired by the masses to whom he preached a philosophy much more progressive than his fellow industrialists could accept.This book has some annoying qualities as well. For instance, the author belabors Ford’s anti-Semitism far too much for a non-Jewish reader. The author seems to believe that in Ford’s time anti-Semitism was mild and hardly known in America, except for Ford. One can only wonder, then, why FDR, a New York liberal, refused to take in even a single boat load of Jewish refugees. The answer, I think, is that he knew that the public did not want a substantial influx of Jewish refugees. Ford was definitely anti-Semitic, yet had 3,000 working for him and had many close Jewish friends. It appeared to be more a generalized personal feeling rather than an animus to individuals. However, for a period he was very outspoken in his feelings and beliefs, but that was not unusual for Ford. Yet he was even considered as a potential presidential candidate in the 1920s.Another annoying quality is that the book skips all around chronologically so that in even a single chapter you need to be alert whether the author is recounting something from 1908 or 1938. Moreover, in some respects the focus drifts from Ford to the automobile business in general too much for my taste.These annoyances should not keep you from the book. They merely indicate the importance of reading it closely. There are some factual inconsistencies, but Ford himself was a bundle of inconsistencies on the one hand and enduring consistencies on the other. All of these qualities, and more, are well laid out in this book. You will come away from this read with a much greater appreciation of Ford’s impact on the twentieth century and our time, but still somewhat mystified as to what motivated the man and what was the real source of his philosophy of life and his genius. It makes you think.

This is at best a "highlights" version of the life of one of the most influential, consequential and controversial Americans of the 20th Century (only 274 pages of text). I assume that this installment of the Oxford University "Lives and Legacies" series intends that its authors to do only that - offer a brief introduction to historical individuals. Henry Ford deserves a Ron Chernow-type biography along the lines of the one Chernow did about John D. Rockefeller, Titan. Until then, there is Steven Watts' book, The People's Tycoon, nearly twice as long and a much better source on Henry Ford than this book. That said, this one is well written and does capably hit the highlights of Ford's life.

There may be someone currently writing who knows as much about the history of the American automobile industry as Vincent Curcio,but if there is, I don't know who that person is. I've long been interested in this history, and as a result have read much about Ford. But I was not surprised when I read this new book to find that Curcio has distilled his vast knowledge into such a wonderful book. Curcio is more than a great biographer; he proved that with his extraordinary biography of Walter Chrysler. He's a great historian with a broad interest in the industrial revolution, and a particular focus on American automobile history. His elegant discussion of a most inelegant subject, Ford's anti-Semitism, in itself makes this book worth buying. There may not be a definitive Ford biography, but if there is, it may be this brief biography. Curcio could easily have give us a thousand pages, and all would have been interesting, but he honed it to 274 pages and has given us a jewel of a book.

If you enjoy biographical books and have an interest in industry this book will be of interest to you. It is well written and easy to read. The Henry Ford story was amazing. Having just read the Steve Jobs biography the similarities between the two men struck me. They both pushed the very limits of the technology they had available, along the way they each changed the world, and money was not their motivating factor. Both also had a dark side and this book does not candy cote Henry Fords dark side. After reading this book I had a much greater understanding of the auto industry, business in general and Detroit.

Ford was an extremely private person, per Mr. Curcio, and only a few hundred pages about a giant in our midst! Mr. Curcio had four times as much to write and expound on concerning another giant, Walter P Chrysler; what little information about Ford that was available, Mr. Curcio utilized and projected the greatness of an uneducated yet determined man who was somewhat able to attract dynamos like himself, to his company and create an unprecedented automotive empire, but who, in the end , allowed a great city to crumble and all in it to suffer the harm of a banking collapse; and all because he detested the Detroit elite.

Given the enormous number of books written about Ford, it's good to read this summary. The writing is straightforward and clear, and easy to read. I think Curcio was evenhanded in his handling of Mr. Ford; he gave both the good and the bad, and couldn't make a decision about which was foremost. Though clearly he admired Ford despite ...

Vincent Curcio states in the introduction that "this book is an attempt to consider, at brief length, all of the important elements that make up his life." The author did an excellent job of that, provided a plethora of information about so many others involved involved with the life of Ford, and insights into the events and happenings that surrounded him. This is one of the most interesting and informative books that I have read about Henry Ford.

Purchased for my Father, who is a huge history buff! He said the author gave a page turning account and well rounded vision of who Henry Ford was.

BUEN PRODUCTO Y PRECIO, EXCELENTE SERVICIO.

A great book on a true titan a man who the world and the average person a car they could afford

I bought this on the strength of having read Curcio's "Chrysler - The life and times of an automotive genius". It isn't in the same league and rather superficial in comparison. But it's OK.

This is a really readable book on a very complicated man.I couldn't decide whether I looked or loathed Henry Ford but you can't ignore the fact that the man was a genius with a dark side.

Whilst the man is most interesting, the book lacked any bite, although it covers his life in full. It is quite a bland read.