Waubonsee Community College

I invented the modern age, the rise of Henry Ford, Richard Snow

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-346) and index

individual biography

index present

non fiction

I invented the modern age

bibliography

800031945

Richard Snow

the rise of Henry Ford

"From an acclaimed popular historian comes a fresh, meticulous, and entertaining account of Henry Ford and his invention of the Model-T--the machine that defined the dawning age in America. Every century or so, our republic has been changed by a new technology: 170 years ago it was the railroad; today it's the microprocessor. But in the early twentieth century it was the gasoline-combustion engine, built by a young, unknown, industrious man named Henry Ford. Born into a steam-powered world, the young farm boy saw the advantages of internal combustion; using his innate mechanical abilities, hard work, and imagination he transformed our nation's industry and went on to become an American icon. In many ways, his story is well known; in just as many other ways, it is not. Richard Snow weaves together a fascinating narrative of Ford's rise to fame--as well as his creative personality and spirit--through his greatest invention, the Model T. The car transformed our nation in a decade, and made Ford a national hero. But then Ford soured, and the benevolent side of his character went into an ever-deepening eclipse, even as the cultural change he initiated remade America. Snow, who "writes with verve and a keen eye" (The New York Times Book Review) has written a highly pleasurable read, and shows us the remarkable man who invented the modern age"--, Provided by publisher

1. A homecoming : Saving the farm, then saving the entire past ; Between the steam engine and the Apple ; "Nobody knew anything about cars" ; Fordism -- 2. "My toys were all tools" : The boy who hated farming ; McGuffey's "new green world" ; Steam and clockwork ; A house without a mainspring ; "The biggest event in those early years" ; Into Detroit --3. Clara : "He's a thinking, serious person" ; Winning a dead man's job ; Electricity ; A baby and a seventh home ; The Christmas Eve engine -- 4. Working from the ground up : Making a car in a world without any ; "A colorless, limpid, innocent-appearing liquid" ; The Bagley Avenue woodshed ; America's first car race ; Henry Ford's first car -- 5. What Edison said : Ford's first sale ; "There's a young fellow who has made a gas car" ; Ford's first company ; A winter drive with "civilization's latest lisp" ; Dissolution: "Henry wasn't ready" -- 6. "Glory and dust" : "We had to race" ; Smiling Billy's World's Championship Sweepstakes ; Ford vs. Winton: "a thin man can run faster than a fat one" ; The Henry Ford Company ; "The materialization of a nightmare" -- 7. The seven-million-dollar letter : Malcomson's gamble ; From a toy printing press ; The Dodge brothers ; The Ford Motor Company ; "This business cannot last" ; The (first) Model A ; "Boss of the road" -- 8. Ford finds his greatest asset : "Who in hell are you?" ; Couzens bosses the boss ; The cars get shipped ; The importance of dealers ; An earthquake proves the Model A ; Parasites ; Who was Malcomson? -- 9. Inventing the universal car : Who wanted it? ; Sorensen's locked room ; Steering wheel on the left, forever ; New experts, new engine, new steel, new car ; "Without doubt the greatest creation in automobiles ever placed before a people10. The man who owned every car in America : Selden files a patent on all gas-powered automobiles and sues their makers ; The court finds for him ; Most carmakers give in ; Ford won't pay "graft money" ; A second trial ; "One of the greatest things Mr. Ford did -- 11. The Model T takes over : New York to Seattle on thin ice ; Learning to drive the Model T ; Birth of a dealer ; The farmer and the car ; Caring for your Model T ; The perils of starting it ; "Funny stories about the Ford ; Five thousand accessories ; Remaking the nation in a decade: "I'll go without food before I'll go without my car -- 12. Terrible efficiency : The Crystal Palace ; Taking the work to the worker ; Speeding up ; The twentieth century's only industrial revolution ; The workers hate it -- 13. The five-dollar day : Couzens and his conscience ; "It's a good round number" ; Ford bids against himself ; "Every worker a potential customer" ; Ford at his zenith -- 14. Simple purposes : Telling workers how to live ; Ugly enough to be a minister ; War ; Ford on the American soldier: "lazy, crazy, or just out of a job" ; Couzens quits ; "Great war to end Christmas Day: Ford to stop it" ; From "peace angel to Vulcan" -- 15. The expert : The Rouge rises ; The Dodge brothers sue ; "We don't seem to be able to keep the profits down" ; Sandbagging the shareholders ; Probing Ford's ignorance in court: "did you ever hear of Benedict Arnold?" -- 16. The international Jew : The problems of civilization traced to their source ; The Dearborn Independent ; Liebold ; "Let's have some sensationalism" ; "Jewish degradation of American baseball" ; Two U.S. presidents ask Ford to stop his campaign ; He carries it on for ninety-one issues of the Independent ; Ford apologizes, saying he had no idea what was in his newspaper -- 17. The end of the line : Edsel ; His powerless power in the company ; Evangeline Dahlinger and her houses and horses ; The "executive scrap heap" ; How to join it: suggest changing the Model T ; Sales dwindle ; Edsel fights ; The last Model T ; What the car had done -- Epilogue : The Model A ; "The Rouge is no fun anymore" ; Buying every steam engine ; "Maybe I pushed the boy too hard" ; The reluctant armorer of Democracy ; To bed by candlelight