Customer Reviews

Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the story of four men: Henry, Edsel, Henry II and Bill Ford. These four men built and guided Ford Motor Co. to where it is today. It is also the story of the many men who also shaped Ford but ultimately were tossed aside.

This book is a treasure trove of information. For instance, who knew that Cadillac had its roots at Ford? Who knew that the auto industry was so tied in together? The Dodge Brothers helped finance Ford. An executive left Ford and started buying up other car makers to form General Motors. The man brought in to add professional engineering left Ford to found Cadillac and then left there to found Lincoln, which Ford bought and brought this same man back to Ford. Such revelations will have you starting many conversations with, "Did you know . . .?"

Dr. Brinkley's work is not perfect, though. Not surprisingly, Henry Ford is the giant of the book and most ink is given to him. However, the 70's, 80's and 90's receive almost a summary treatment. Also, not enough time is given to the cultural shift to SUVs and how Ford moved from a car company that had a truck division to a truck maker that also happens to sell cars.

Most disappointingly, the book has too few pictures. Dr. Brinkley has strong descriptive powers that one wants to see the car or the plant or the person he is describing, but the pictures aren't there. If the Taurus is so important to Ford, especially in terms of styling, why not include a picture of the first model?

In the end, this book is a great read. One cheers for Ford when it triumphs and worries about it when it falters. Dr. Brinkley clearly loves Ford: the company, the cars and the men. His work is a labor of love.

This book actually brings new things to the Ford story. 1. New details especially in interviews with workers through the years. 2. Emphasis on how the business was really built, and credit to the whole circle of people responsible; also more information than ever on the other Fords, Edsel and Henry II, who are usually glossed over. 3. A lot about Ford's effect on the world outside of cars. Much more about the excitement of the product (the cars) than the usual business history, too. I have read everything out there about Ford and a lot of books of business history. They usually miss the big picture, but this book doesn't. Well-written, well-researched, highly recommended.

Douglas Brinkley was given access to the Ford Motor Co. archives, and he seems bent on including everything he found there. This book is 764 pages long and it took me three weeks to read. Yet, I can't say it was a wasted effort.
Henry Ford is the undisputed star. Brinkley spends pages trying to decide whether old Henry was a genius or just a excellent judge of character. He finally arrives at a compromise of sorts: Ford would not have succeeded without James Couzens, his business manager; Charles Sorenson, production manager, or C. Harold Wills, his chief designer. But it was Henry Ford's vision and will power that held everything together. He was also a genius at promotion (sometimes self promotion).
Brinkley does not shirk in his criticism of Ford's warts. Much of the book is devoted to Ford's anti-Semitism. On the other hand, he's quick to tell us of Ford's devotion to African American workers and his financing of Ford Hospital and social programs for his immigrant workers.
Although he's ambivalent about Henry Ford, Brinkley loves Edsel and Henry II. Brinkley's Edsel is an urbane and sophisticated man whom the author gives credit for the development of the Lincoln Continental and other styling at Ford. He also debunks the notion that Henry Ford contributed to Edsel's early death. Henry II is shown as an empathetic man who worked hand-in-hand with Walter Reuther's UAW to improve employee/employer relations.
Up until reading this book, I couldn't tell a Ford Taurus from a Ford Tempo, but I have to say that lately I've been paying more attention and, yes, the Tempo does look rather like a jellybean.

Wheels for the World by Douglas Brinkley is a lengthy, but well written book that details the Ford Motor Company's epic history and many accomplishments. Brinkley offers the reader plenty of information on Henry Ford, the pioneer of mass produced auto manufacturing. He details everything from Ford's instabilities and contradicting behavior to his impeccable business savvy. A major downfall for Wheels for the World is Brinkley's inability to make clean transitions from one idea to the next. The reader gets attached to one idea, and the next thing you know Brinkley has begun an entirely new concept. But, in the end I believe the author did a great job of capturing the struggles and successes of the Ford Motor Company, while also taking us through an interesting journey into the life of an extremely intelligent man in our nation's history. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the nation and the auto-making industry.

Wheels for the World is a captivating look at the Ford Motor Company from its earliest conception to the present day. Douglas Brinkley, being granted unrivalled access to Ford's archives, takes the reader back to the beginning of Henry Ford's youth onwards to the incorporation of the Ford Motor Company to today. The richness and detail Brinkley provides is what sets this apart from other historical biographical works. And in a sense, this is what the book is, a biographical look at Henry Ford and his family with a historical look at the company. Brinkley brings to life so many different characters that brought profound changes to Ford that have long since been forgotten today. People such as Alex Malcomson (who provided the finances in the creation of the final iteration of Ford), James Couzens (the financial and administrative wizard in the early days who created a corporate structure from scratch), and many others are all covered in-depth in this book as well as the main players such as Sorensen and Iacocca. He also covers different aspects of Ford such as the creation of Ford's Aviation Department and the positive relationship he had with African-Americans. Neither does Brinkley whitewash the controversies Henry Ford nor the Ford Company stirred in their day (from anti-Semitism to the Pinto debacle). However, there are a few issues with this book. Although overall very detailed and encompassing, after the passing of Henry Ford, the book begins to accelerate through the companies' history. This is especially profound after the retirement of Henry Ford II where Brinkley rushes through 2 decades until he reaches the inauguration of William Clay Ford Jr. and then proceeds to faun over him as if he were a great saviour (which even today we still don't know). Although not an extreme problem, it does unfortunately not tie in as well with the rest of the books fascinating details and perspectives. One feels that Brinkley was growing tired of writing (and it is quite the read at 764 pages) and wanted to speed things up a little so he could wrap up sooner. All told though, this nagging detail is not enough to negatively affect Brinkley's work. Wonderfully written and full of details, Brinkley's book may literally be one of the last books you may ever need to read on Henry Ford and his company.

Last year, I read a book about Henry Ford and his anti-Semitism. At that time, I had a very narrow view about the man - I wish now that I had read this book, Douglas Brinkley's study of Ford and his company, before I had read that one.

Brinkley's mammoth volume on this one man and the company he created is a tremendous addition to American business history. Brinkely gives us a comprehensive study (about half of the book) of Henry Ford the man and how he created the Ford Motor Company. This segment of the book really gave me a new respect for the man as an innovator and an idealist, though his engineering skills were apparently lacking (at one point Brinkley tells his audience that Ford couldn't even read a blueprint). Brinkley intertwines the story of Henry's son Edsel, who was given the unenviable task of running Ford Motor while Henry was still alive and wouldn't release control over some of the day-to-day operations.

After seeing Edsel die an untimely death, we see Ford Motor transition to Henry II. This is the first time that Henry Sr. relinquishes some control, and we see what the company can do (and does) during this period. Brinkley vividly tells the story of Henry II and his interactions with the labor movement in conjunction with operations at Ford Motor.

Towards the end of the book, we see the post Henry II era. We see a couple of different CEO's, including Donald Peterson, who seemed to help the company, and Jac Nasser, who probably isn't missed much by the Ford family - his reign saw the depletion of massive cash reserves from the corporation. At the conclusion of the book, Brinkley shows us the path that the company is taking today under the leadership of Bill Ford, Jr.

I believe that Brinkley has given us a wonderful book here - telling us the story not just of a man or a company, but a combination of so many facets of American history. What made Henry Ford tick? Why did he create Ford Motor Company? What did he do to make it survive? How did Ford Motor Company impact Michigan and America as a whole? All of these questions, and so many more, are answered in this splendid book. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a strong understanding of how one man and the business he built can have such a tremendous impact on America and the rest of the world.

It takes a true master author to write an 800-page biography of a well-documented and known history while keeping the reader fully engaged like a mystery novel.

I was at first intimated by the size of the book but then pleasantly surprised at how well it was written.

The author takes us through the journey of Henry Ford's life from birth to the creation of Ford Motor all the way to the arrival of the 3rd Ford family member to take over the company in 2002.

What makes this book so good is the fact that the author strikes a perfect balance between giving the reader intimate details of the Henry Ford's day to day life as well as moving the story along.

In the end I believe the author did a fantastic job of capturing the spirit of Ford Motor Company, its struggles, its success, its failures, and its challenges through the life of its leader.

This book is highly recommended as the first car history book you give a young reader.

I liked this book a lot and obviously a substantial amount of energy was put into research.
One thing though.......it is so comprehensive up to Henry's death, and then little is left for the days of HenryII et al. So, my remark is what about the exciting post-war years and then the present? The old 3 volume Nevins book covers this more thoroughly.At least until 1962.
So, I want suggestions about a Ford history through the Iaccoca years til now. Yes, we know he built the Mustang, but Henry built the Model T and a lot more was written about him. Will have to do a search for Hank the Deuce material too.
And I leave it at that.....should have been called a half century of progress

It would be difficult to conceive of a more detailed corporate history. Author Douglas Brinkley offers an interesting, lucid narrative of Henry Ford's early experiments with the automobile, and his first, unsuccessful companies. He promises and delivers a "warts and all" picture of Ford's history. Brinkley is at his strongest discussing Ford's origins. But the book is also sprawling, diffuse and unfocused, with a somewhat confusing tendency to jump back and forth along the twentieth century timeline. It is more than a biography of Henry Ford, but less than a thorough history of the Ford Motor Company. The author nods in the direction of the technological, managerial and financial forces that have shaped Ford since the 1950s, though he presents Ford's (both man and company) earlier history in vivid detail. The impact of what Henry Ford did and how he did it still shapes industry in the United States. We recommend Brinkley's book for its revealing picture of one of the twentieth century's most influential industrialists.

Douglas Brinkley has convinced me that you can at once be sponsored by a corporation to do its history AND not fawn over the organization AND write readably.

Someone else here descreibed the book as an "endurance test." I would not agree...I thought the book, though long, was well-organized, well-paced and easy to maintain reader interest.

Henry Ford I is the centerpiece, all right, but I especially enjoyed Brinkley's insights into the much more private, even reticent, Edsel Ford. Edsel really saved the company during the late 20s and then the depression, but is largely forgotten for his role. Henry's crazed desire for control caused him to embarass and berate his only son at every opportunity. Edsel died relatively young; in fact, Henry outlived him.

What is it we want out of life? Of we want our lives to make a difference, then Henry was an unqualified success. Self promotion aside, Henry changed the whole world more than any other single figure of the twentieth century - and did so despite glaring personal inadequacies and near-fatal quirks. When he was wrong, he was incredibly adamantly and brutally wrong.

"Never complain, never explain." Henry I didn't say it, but his grandson Henry II did - and Henry II led the company through its time of turnaround, unprecedented growth and earnings in the 1980s. A great book!