Here's a domestic read (from my point of view). Another out-of-print tome worth finding.
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Ford: The Men and the Machine Robert Lacey
The Men are Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, Henry II, and Lee Iacocca.
It covers Henry's early days up through Henry II's firing of Iacocca.
This is one of those "you can't make this stuff up" stories. The epitome of ego and family dysfunction. It's been a while since I read it, but here are a few things I remember off the top of my head.
- Henry built his first gas powered 'quadricycle' in a coal shed behind his rented duplex, and then discovered it would not fit through the door. An axe to the brick wall solved the problem. His unhappy landlord eventually allowed him to install a larger door rather than restore the original opening. This is sometimes credited as America's first garage door.
- Henry's ego, stubbornness, and authoritarianism drove the company to the brink of failure, not once but twice (saved first time by the 1927 Model A, one of Edsel's few victories against the old man's autocracy, and the second by the '49 Ford, after Henry's death and Henry II's successful purge of his grandfather's cronies and installation of
the "whiz kids").
- Assembly line Model T's were offered only in Black, not for uniformity, but because the black pigment dried faster than other colors, allowing increased production.
- Most people are probably aware of Henry's $5/day and reduced workweek innovations, but did you know the degree of social engineering that went with it? $5/day was not automatic - it was a bonus level. Families had to submit to invasive visits, interviews, and evaluations from Ford's 'Sociological Department' to prove they were living proper lives and deserved the highest bonus pay.
- Henry bought and published a weekly newspaper,
The Dearborn Independent, in the 1920s, in large part to spew anti-semitic vitriol (and then expressed dismay and confusion that a long time family friend, a Rabbi, stopped speaking to him).
- Henry Ford is the only American mentioned in
Mein Kampf.
- Henry loved his rural roots and was forever conflicted about the industrialization he helped spark - he engaged in many agricultural experiments over the years, including biomass derived alcohol for fuel and plant derived plastics. Soybeans worked best, but he tried many crops in his plastics experiments - including marihuana.
- If you have read Lee Iacocca's autobiography, this book supplies some balance. Lacey disputes several Iacocca assertions about his Ford years with solid documentation.
