Customer Reviews

American Auto Factory

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What an amazing collection of pictures detailing the history and evolution of the American automobile. The text in this book is basic support for this massing of pictures of factories that most probably have never heard of, like REO, Overland, Oakland, Marion, Queen, Chalmers, DeVaux-Hall, Ruxton and a great many others, all American companies. At the height of the auto industry boom, prior to the Great Depression, there were over 1,900 manufactures of American automobiles. Also, before the Great Depression, one out of every six people were employed by the auto industry. This book is for the person that knows a great deal about automobiles and would like to go back to the days of Henry Ford, Billy Durant, Walter Chrysler, John and Horace Dodge, Ransom Olds, Louis Chevrolet, Henry Leland, David Buick and all of the other greats that started a passion that would change America and the world forever.

This is a great book- meticulously researched with a fine catalogue of images. These boys did their homework and it shows. It would be worth purchasing if only for the very rare early photos of auto factories. If you love auto history you'll want this book in your library.

The American Auto Factory is a historical and sociological look at the development and changes in technology which directly impacted both workers and management told through vivid pictures and concise text. Or so I believed. What was actually there was only partial to my perception. Beyond the vivid and captivating pictures was a very dull and unexciting narrative of the history of the American auto industry. Not that the history itself is uninteresting, rather, it has been told countless times before in numerous books in more detail then provided here. The American Auto Factory should have focused its narrative on the changing conditions and relationship of the men (and eventually women) working in the factories portrayed both through pictures and text. Decade by decade, I expected a discussion on the changes in technology and how it effected workers perceptions and relationships with management, their jobs and each other. Unfortunately the authors decided to provide a simple historical narrative on the auto industries main players, GM, Ford and Chrysler with minor discussion on the independents in the corresponding chapters. Having said all of that, it still doesn't take away from the beautiful pictures included. If the authors did one thing perfectly right, it was to dig up all those archived photos and include them in this book including Diego Rivera's famous (or infamous to some) mural, Detroit Industry. The pictures are wonderful and convey an entrancing story of the auto factory from the way it was to the way it is. Buy this book if you want to be visually captivated at the workers and their machines in the process of creating the automobile. Don't buy it if you want a better understanding at how workers were and still are affected by these same machines.

This was a pretty good look at the development of the US auto industry. Caution, the book is large and heavy. I found it somewhat difficult to follow the text due to all the photos. Often, by the time I'd looked at the subsequent photos, I'd lost track of the subject matter and would have to flip back for a review (and did I mention the book was large and heavy). This made the book difficult to read seamlessly.

This was an excellent book with some great pictures of the manufacturing plants that put America on the road. Any auto history buff will enjoy this book. It is well done, easy to read, and most informative.