The Ford Century: Ford Motor Company and the Innovations that Shaped the World (Hardcover)

by Russ Banham (Author), Paul Newman (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This is corporate history with the top down-a breezy, upbeat, illustrated cruise through the 100 years since the first Ford Motor Company's incorporation and its release of the Model A in 1903. Banham, who has produced similar corporate histories (Coors: A Rocky Mountain Legend, etc.), skims past the historical context of the Ford Century, but the author skips none of the debit entries on Ford the man, not even his anti-Semitism and bouts of flinty noblesse oblige during the Depression, although he does avoid most of the company's labor-management potholes. After devoting much space to Henry Ford, Banham describes his successors, including Henry II, McNamara, Iacocca, Nasser. Most of these CEOs take a bow for globalizing Ford through acquisitions (Lincoln, Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover) and for benchmarks in marketing and engineering, including the Edsel. Banham wisely pauses in the middle of this management hagiography and gives over the story to the cars themselves in an illustrated centerpiece of 25 "Heart and Soul" Fords (along with models from Volvo et al.)-most with marketing case summaries and social history. Studded with more than 500 images, including early photos of production lines, advertisements and the automobiles themselves, this volume is a nice road trip for Ford marque buffs, but on the whowle it comes off as a glossy, self-congratulating corporate history.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The Ford Model T changed the way America lived--almost everyone could now own a car. And when Henry Ford devised the assembly line method of car building so that more Fords could be produced, American industry was also changed. Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Ford Motor Company, and this large-format visual history of the company is tied to the planned worldwide celebration. Banham, a business journalist and book author, writes engaging text that is certainly not overshadowed--but, instead, supported--by the vast illustrations. More than 500 photos have been culled from private collections and the Ford archives, and they are used to great effect as Banham charts the growth of one of the most significant companies in the world. Of particular delight is the "Special Collectors Section," which profiles 25 "vehicles that have generated excitement and inspired passion," from the 1914 Model T to the 1991 Explorer. (For a dark chapter in Ford history, see Thomas E. Bonsall's Disaster in Dearborn: The Story of the Edsel, reviewed in this issue on p.554). Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Artisan; 1 edition (November 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579652018
• ISBN-13: 978-1887656887
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 10.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #278,418 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful and entertaining book, May 8, 2003

By A Customer

This book is fascinating, even for people like me who aren't especially interested in cars. I picked it up at my grandpa's house and couldn't put it down. More than a "car book," Ford Century brings in a lot of the history that Ford grew up in - from hula hoops to hot rods - and reminds its readers how Ford was there for it all. This is a beautiful book, as well, with great images and nostalgiac pictures. I highly recommend it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars official book of Ford Motor Company, February 13, 2007

By	Brunner Marc - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

complete history of Ford Motor Company incl. sub-brands
Every employee of Ford Motor got one in 2003.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Massive Panaoramic Sweep of Ford:Man,Cars,Company, January 10, 2003

By	rodboomboom (Dearborn, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Tying in with Ford's 100th celebration is this fine chronicle of this influential name and continuing legacy in so many areas of the past century.

The mobility and culture which has sprung up around the auto is staggering. Here it is captured from following one of the influential figures in all of that: Henry Ford and the legacy he left.

Well done with photos and enough text to provide running history of this giant in industry and society, this will become a collector's item to be given with pride, displayed on coffetables or in libraries.

To reflect back on all those vehicles--- Model T, Thunderbird, Mustang, Edsel, F-150, assembly line. We've all been touched by it. This is luscious nostalgia at its best.