Comeback: The Fall & Rise of the American Automobile Industry [Paperback]

Paul Ingrassia (Author), Joseph B. White (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 18, 1995

In Comeback, Pulitzer Prize-winners Paul Ingrassia and Joseph B. White take us to the boardrooms, the executive offices, and the shop floors of the auto business to reconstruct, in riveting detail, how America's premier industry stumbled, fell, and picked itself up again. The story begins in 1982, when Honda started building cars in Marysville, Ohio, and the entire U.S. car industry seemed to be on the brink of extinction. It ends just over a decade later, with a remarkable turn of the tables, as Japan's car industry falters and America's Big Three emerge as formidable global competitors.

Comeback is a story propelled by larger-than-life characters -- Lee Iacocca, Henry Ford II, Don Petersen, Roger Smith, among many others -- and their greed, pride, and sheer refusal to face facts. But it is also a story full of dedicated, unlikely heroes who struggled to make the Big Three change before it was too late.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After posting record operating losses of $7.5 billion in 1991, Detroit's "Big Three" automakers seemed headed for disaster. But the last three years have brought a dramatic turnaround. How Ford, Chrysler and General Motors transformed themselves from tottering dinosaurs turning out defect-ridden cars in the 1980s into efficient producers of popular automobiles is the theme of this riveting, juicy, optimistic report. Ingrassia, Wall Street Journal senior editor in Detroit, and White, the Journal's deputy bureau chief in Michigan, offer a familiar story-American plants adapted Japanese methods and technology learned from Japanese-U.S. joint ventures. But the authors also provide a candid inside look at Big Three decision-making, power struggles, arrogance and near-diasters, telling how a new cadre of managers replaced a stultifying status quo, along with withering profiles of Lee Iacocca, Roger Smith, Donald Petersen, Bob Lutz and other top auto executives. Photos. First serial to Wall Street Journal; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Pulitzer Prize winners Ingrassia and White, both of the Wall Street Journal's Michigan bureau, have written the definitive recent history of the American automobile industry. In the last five years, Ford, GM, and Chrysler have all managed to rebound from the near-fatal mistakes they made in the 1980s. The authors go beyond the daily barrage of press releases and earnings reports to unearth a dramatic tale of clashing egos and boardroom intrigue. The result is a story at once engrossing and packed with valuable information. Although intended for general readers, this flawlessly researched book will also serve as an excellent resource for special collections. This work will nicely balance Maryann Keller's more internationally focused Collision (LJ 10/1/93). Highly recommended.
Alexander Wright, Harvard Univ. Lib, Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st Touchstone Ed. 1995, 1st Printing edition (October 18, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684804379
• ISBN-13: 978-0684804378
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #768,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Ingrassia is the former Detroit bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 (with Joseph B. White) for reporting on management crises at General Motors, Ingrassia has chronicled the auto industry for more than twenty-five years. His latest book, "Crash Course: the American Automobile Industry's Road from Glory to Disaster," is the first book published about the 2009 bailouts and bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Meet the Press, the PBS Newshour, CNBC, National Public Radio and more. He's a frequent op-ed contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Edmunds.com and other publications.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good, but tedious at times, October 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Comeback: The Fall & Rise of the American Automobile Industry (Paperback)

This book is pretty good, but it spends too much time, I think, describing everything that the auto companies did wrong, and not enough about what they did right. An interesting feature of this book is that in the portion about what went wrong the book details almost exclusively the foibles of the CEO and Vice Presidents of the car companies, while the section on the "comeback" details the activities of lower rank managers and engineers. Coincidence or intentional? The message seems to be that when CEO's get out of the way, the workers can succeed. Overall, this book was good, but I thought that Mary Walton's "CAR" was a better car book.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book!, March 30, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Comeback: The Fall & Rise of the American Automobile Industry (Paperback)

This book is excellent. It reads like a novel -- managers and executives are described in terms of their personalities and their accomplishments/failures. The "plot" progresses from the early 1980s when Honda entered the American automobile market to the mid-1990s when the Big Three finally got their stuff together and cameback from near failure to become true competitors again. I would recommend this book as a must-read to anyone interested in the automobile industry and a good read for anyone else.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Detailed account of American Industry and Pride gone wrong, June 18, 2001

By 

"generalmotorsiscool" (Western New York State) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Comeback: The Fall & Rise of the American Automobile Industry (Paperback)

This book was spectacular: the amount of detailed facts combined with unprecedented inside information never before gathered from the dungeons of the Big Three amount to a fascinating account of greed, complacency, and eventually recovery. Some of the information contained therein will make the hair on the back of one's neck stand in disgust or elation. Anyone who is interested in automobiles or American Industry or who just wants a good read should pick up this book.