Customer Reviews

Honda: The Man and His Machines

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This book opened my eyes to a whole new way of seeing my favorite motorcycle company. I am a fan of their cars too but it has always been their two wheeled machines that have had me hooked. The best thing about the book is what an "American Story" Sochiro Honda was. From nothing to greatness in his field in a single lifetime. Honda tried and failed and went back to school and succeeded. He worked HARD as a young man to even get to a position to launch what we now think of as Honda.

A really neat read, it will surprise you.

There are two Honda histories in English that are more accurate than the revisionist versions and pablum now available. I won't spoil either, but Soichiro Honda is an interesting character and the true story is far more interesting and respectable than the Tata-mae (truth for public consumption) now offered. The other book is Honda Motor: The Men The Management The Machines by Testuo Sakiya (1982). If you're really interested in Honda history, read both. THEN if you're really serious, look for the unpublished "The Honda Way" written by the American executives of Honda of America Manufacturing for the plant dedication in October, 1985; very, very hard to find, though parts have leaked out through the years. Honda is worthy of study. I suspect it no longer exists, but at one point General Motors had a whole committee studying Honda's business model. Yeah, well...they had the right idea.