Overview
The Fords: An American Epic is the dramatic story of three generations of Fords and of the dramatic conflict between fathers and sons played out against the backdrop of America's greatest industrial empire.Synopsis
The Fords: An American Epic is the dramatic story of three generations of Fords and of the dramatic conflict between fathers and sons played out against the backdrop of America's greatest industrial empire. The story begins with Henry I, the mechanical wizard, tinkerer, and mad genius who drove the automobile into the heart of American life and conquered the world with it. But in the end he became an embittered crank who so possessively loved the company he built that when his son, Edsel, tried to change it to suit the times, Henry destroyed him. It was left to Edsel's son, Henry II, to avenge him and save the Ford Motor Company. From the details of Henry I's illicit affair, which produced an illegitimate son, to the life and loves of "Hank the Deuce" and his celebrated feud with Lee Iacocca, this is an engrossing account of a vital chapter in American history. The authors have added a new preface to this now classic work, showing how Henry II's line lost out to the line of his brother William Clay Ford in the quest to control the company in the twentieth century.
Publishers Weekly
Collier and Horowitz (The Kennedys, The Rothschilds) vividly depict the career of Henry Ford, the quirky turn-of-the-century automobile inventor who put America on wheels with his homely everyman-type car, the Model T, in the 1920s``the first and last great giant of the auto industry.'' He appointed his only son, Edsel, head of the company but tormented him by limiting his authority, promoted anti-Semitism and hired a union-busting tough, Harry Bennett, who nearly took over the company. This saga pulls at the emotions while instructing readers about harsh business realities and human frailty as we watch Edsel's four children and numerous grandchildren contend with celebrity and great wealth, ill health, alcoholism, family jealousy, sense of failure and marital unhappiness. Finally, we're shown Henry Ford II, who after World War II assumed authority as his father never could, and become a national figure by leading the Ford Motor Company to great renewed successat a great personal price. Major ad/promo; BOMC selection; author tour. (October)