Henry Ford
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This article is about the American industrialist. For other uses, see Henry Ford (disambiguation).
Henry Ford
Ford in 1919
July 30, 1863
Greenfield Township, Michigan, United
Born
States
April 7, 1947 (aged 83)
Died
Fair Lane, Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.
Nationality American
Founder of Ford Motor, business
Occupation
magnate, engineering
$188.1 billion (based on February
Net worth
2008 data from Forbes)
Anglican
Religion
Spouse(s) Clara Jane Bryant
Children Edsel Ford
William Ford and Mary Ford
Parents
Signature
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, the founder of the
Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass
production. Although Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line,[1] he developed
and manufactured the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford. In doing
so, Ford converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into a practical conveyance that
would profoundly impact the landscape of the twentieth century. His introduction of the Model T
automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. As owner of the Ford Motor
Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with
"Fordism": mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Ford
had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to
systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a
franchise system that put dealerships throughout most of North America and in major cities on
six continents. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford Foundation and arranged for his
family to control the company permanently.
Ford was also widely known for his pacifism during the first years of World War I, and also for
being the publisher of antisemitic texts such as the book The International Jew.[2]
Contents
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1 Early life
2 Marriage and family
3 Career
o 3.1 Ford Motor Company
 3.1.1 Model T
 3.1.2 Model A and Ford's later career
 3.1.3 Labor philosophy
 3.1.3.1 The five-dollar workday
 3.1.3.2 Labor unions
o 3.2 Ford Airplane Company
 3.2.1 Willow Run
o 3.3 Peace and war
 3.3.1 World War I era
 3.3.2 The coming of World War II and Ford's mental collapse
4 The Dearborn Independent and anti-Semitism
5 International business
6 Racing
7 Later career and death
8 Personal interests
o 8.1 Interest in materials science and engineering
o 8.2 Florida and Georgia residences and community
o 8.3 Preserving Americana
9 In popular culture
10 Honors and recognition
11 See also
12 Notes
13 References
o 13.1 Memoirs by Ford Motor Company principals
o 13.2 Biographies
o

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13.3 Specialized studies
14 Further reading
15 External links
Early life
Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863, on a farm in Greenfield Township, Michigan.[3] His father,
William Ford (1826–1905), was born in County Cork, Ireland, to a family that was originally
from Somerset, England,[4] His mother, Mary Ford (née Litogot) (1839–1876), was born in
Michigan as the youngest child of Belgian immigrants; her parents died when she was a child
and she was adopted by neighbors, the O'Herns. Henry Ford's siblings were Margaret Ford
(1867–1938); Jane Ford (c. 1868–1945); William Ford (1871–1917) and Robert Ford (1873–
1934).
His father gave him a pocket watch in his early teens. At 15, Ford dismantled and reassembled
the timepieces of friends and neighbors dozens of times, gaining the reputation of a watch
repairman.[5] At twenty, Ford walked four miles to their Episcopal church every Sunday.[6]
Ford was devastated when his mother died in 1876. His father expected him to eventually take
over the family farm, but he despised farm work. He later wrote, "I never had any particular love
for the farm—it was the mother on the farm I loved."[7]
In 1879, Ford left home to work as an apprentice machinist in Detroit, first with James F. Flower
& Bros., and later with the Detroit Dry Dock Co. In 1882, he returned to Dearborn to work on
the family farm, where he became adept at operating the Westinghouse portable steam engine.
He was later hired by Westinghouse to service their steam engines. During this period Ford also
studied bookkeeping at Goldsmith, Bryant & Stratton Business College in Detroit.[8]
Henry Ford in 1888, aged 25.
Marriage and family
Ford married Clara Ala Bryant (1866–1950) in 1888 and supported himself by farming and
running a sawmill.[9] They had one child: Edsel Ford (1893–1943).[10]
Career
In 1891, Ford became an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company. After his promotion to
Chief Engineer in 1893, he had enough time and money to devote attention to his personal
experiments on gasoline engines. These experiments culminated in 1896 with the completion of
a self-propelled vehicle which he named the Ford Quadricycle. He test-drove it on June 4. After
various test drives, Ford brainstormed ways to improve the Quadricycle.[11]
Also in 1896, Ford attended a meeting of Edison executives, where he was introduced to Thomas
Edison. Edison approved of Ford's automobile experimentation. Encouraged by Edison, Ford
designed and built a second vehicle, completing it in 1898.[12] Backed by the capital of Detroit
lumber baron William H. Murphy, Ford resigned from the Edison Company and founded the
Detroit Automobile Company on August 5, 1899.[12] However, the automobiles produced were
of a lower quality and higher price than Ford wanted. Ultimately, the company was not
successful and was dissolved in January 1901.[12]
With the help of C. Harold Wills, Ford designed, built, and successfully raced a 26-horsepower
automobile in October 1901. With this success, Murphy and other stockholders in the Detroit
Automobile Company formed the Henry Ford Company on November 30, 1901, with Ford as
chief engineer.[12] In 1902, Murphy brought in Henry M. Leland as a consultant; Ford, in
response, left the company bearing his name. With Ford gone, Murphy renamed the company the
Cadillac Automobile Company.[12]
Teaming up with former racing cyclist Tom Cooper, Ford also produced the 80+ horsepower
racer "999" which Barney Oldfield was to drive to victory in a race in October 1902. Ford
received the backing of an old acquaintance, Alexander Y. Malcomson, a Detroit-area coal
dealer.[12] They formed a partnership, "Ford & Malcomson, Ltd." to manufacture automobiles.
Ford went to work designing an inexpensive automobile, and the duo leased a factory and
contracted with a machine shop owned by John and Horace E. Dodge to supply over $160,000 in
parts.[12] Sales were slow, and a crisis arose when the Dodge brothers demanded payment for
their first shipment.
Ford Motor Company
Henry Ford with Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone. Fort Myers, Florida, February 11, 1929.
In response, Malcomson brought in another group of investors and convinced the Dodge
Brothers to accept a portion of the new company.[12] Ford & Malcomson was reincorporated as
the Ford Motor Company on June 16, 1903,[12] with $28,000 capital. The original investors
included Ford and Malcomson, the Dodge brothers, Malcomson's uncle John S. Gray,
Malcolmson's secretary James Couzens, and two of Malcomson's lawyers, John W. Anderson
and Horace Rackham. Ford then demonstrated a newly designed car on the ice of Lake St. Clair,
driving 1 mile (1.6 km) in 39.4 seconds and setting a new land speed record at 91.3 miles per
hour (146.9 kilometres per hour). Convinced by this success, the race driver Barney Oldfield,
who named this new Ford model "999" in honor of the fastest locomotive of the day, took the car
around the country, making the Ford brand known throughout the United States. Ford also was
one of the early backers of the Indianapolis 500.
Model T
The Model T was introduced on October 1, 1908. It had the steering wheel on the left, which
every other company soon copied. The entire engine and transmission were enclosed; the four
cylinders were cast in a solid block; the suspension used two semi-elliptic springs. The car was
very simple to drive, and easy and cheap to repair. It was so cheap at $825 in 1908 ($21,650
today) (the price fell every year) that by the 1920s, a majority of American drivers had learned to
drive on the Model T.[13]
Ford created a huge publicity machine in Detroit to ensure every newspaper carried stories and
ads about the new product. Ford's network of local dealers made the car ubiquitous in almost
every city in North America. As independent dealers, the franchises grew rich and publicized not
just the Ford but the concept of automobiling; local motor clubs sprang up to help new drivers
and to encourage exploring the countryside. Ford was always eager to sell to farmers, who
looked on the vehicle as a commercial device to help their business. Sales skyrocketed—several
years posted 100% gains on the previous year. Always on the hunt for more efficiency and lower
costs, in 1913 Ford introduced the moving assembly belts into his plants, which enabled an
enormous increase in production. Although Ford is often credited with the idea, contemporary
sources indicate that the concept and its development came from employees Clarence Avery,
Peter E. Martin, Charles E. Sorensen, and C. Harold Wills.[14] (See Piquette Plant)
Ford assembly line, 1913
Sales passed 250,000 in 1914. By 1916, as the price dropped to $360 for the basic touring car,
sales reached 472,000.[15] (Using the consumer price index, this price was equivalent to $7,020 in
2008 dollars.)
By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model T's. All new cars were black; as Ford wrote in
his autobiography, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is
black".[16] Until the development of the assembly line, which mandated black because of its
quicker drying time, Model Ts were available in other colors, including red. The design was
fervently promoted and defended by Ford, and production continued as late as 1927; the final
total production was 15,007,034. This record stood for the next 45 years. This record was
achieved in 19 years from the introduction of the first Model T (1908).
President Woodrow Wilson asked Ford to run as a Democrat for the United States Senate from
Michigan in 1918. Although the nation was at war, Ford ran as a peace candidate and a strong
supporter of the proposed League of Nations.[17] Ford was defeated in a close election by the
Republican candidate, Truman Newberry, a former United States Secretary of the Navy.
Henry Ford turned the presidency of Ford Motor Company over to his son Edsel Ford in
December 1918. Henry retained final decision authority and sometimes reversed his son. Henry
started another company, Henry Ford and Son, and made a show of taking himself and his best
employees to the new company; the goal was to scare the remaining holdout stockholders of the
Ford Motor Company to sell their stakes to him before they lost most of their value. (He was
determined to have full control over strategic decisions.) The ruse worked, and Henry and Edsel
purchased all remaining stock from the other investors, thus giving the family sole ownership of
the company.[18]
By the mid-1920s, sales of the Model T began to decline due to rising competition. Other auto
makers offered payment plans through which consumers could buy their cars, which usually
included more modern mechanical features and styling not available with the Model T. Despite
urgings from Edsel, Henry refused to incorporate new features into the Model T or to form a
customer credit plan.[19]
Model A and Ford's later career
By 1926, flagging sales of the Model T finally convinced Henry to make a new model. He
pursued the project with a great deal of technical expertise in design of the engine, chassis, and
other mechanical necessities, while leaving the body design to his son. Edsel also managed to
prevail over his father's initial objections in the inclusion of a sliding-shift transmission.[20]
The result was the successful Ford Model A, introduced in December 1927 and produced
through 1931, with a total output of more than 4 million. Subsequently, the Ford company
adopted an annual model change system similar to that recently pioneered by its competitor
General Motors (and still in use by automakers today). Not until the 1930s did Ford overcome
his objection to finance companies, and the Ford-owned Universal Credit Corporation became a
major car-financing operation.[21]
Ford did not believe in accountants; he amassed one of the world's largest fortunes without ever
having his company audited under his administration.
Labor philosophy
The five-dollar workday
Time Magazine, January 14, 1935.
Ford was a pioneer of "welfare capitalism", designed to improve the lot of his workers and
especially to reduce the heavy turnover that had many departments hiring 300 men per year to
fill 100 slots. Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best workers.[22]
Ford astonished the world in 1914 by offering a $5 per day wage ($120 today), which more than
doubled the rate of most of his workers.[23] A Cleveland, Ohio newspaper editorialized that the
announcement "shot like a blinding rocket through the dark clouds of the present industrial
depression."[24] The move proved extremely profitable; instead of constant turnover of
employees, the best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford, bringing their human capital and
expertise, raising productivity, and lowering training costs.[25][26] Ford announced his $5-per-day
program on January 5, 1914, raising the minimum daily pay from $2.34 to $5 for qualifying
workers. It also set a new, reduced workweek, although the details vary in different accounts.
Ford and Crowther in 1922 described it as six 8-hour days, giving a 48-hour week,[27] while in
1926 they described it as five 8-hour days, giving a 40-hour week.[28] (Apparently the program
started with Saturday being a workday and sometime later it was changed to a day off.)
Detroit was already a high-wage city, but competitors were forced to raise wages or lose their
best workers.[29] Ford's policy proved, however, that paying people more would enable Ford
workers to afford the cars they were producing and be good for the economy. Ford explained the
policy as profit-sharing rather than wages.[30] It may have been Couzens who convinced Ford to
adopt the $5-day.[31]
The profit-sharing was offered to employees who had worked at the company for six months or
more, and, importantly, conducted their lives in a manner of which Ford's "Social Department"
approved. They frowned on heavy drinking, gambling, and (what today are called) deadbeat
dads. The Social Department used 50 investigators, plus support staff, to maintain employee
standards; a large percentage of workers were able to qualify for this "profit-sharing."
Ford's incursion into his employees' private lives was highly controversial, and he soon backed
off from the most intrusive aspects. By the time he wrote his 1922 memoir, he spoke of the
Social Department and of the private conditions for profit-sharing in the past tense, and admitted
that "paternalism has no place in industry. Welfare work that consists in prying into employees'
private concerns is out of date. Men need counsel and men need help, often special help; and all
this ought to be rendered for decency's sake. But the broad workable plan of investment and
participation will do more to solidify industry and strengthen organization than will any social
work on the outside. Without changing the principle we have changed the method of
payment."[32]
Labor unions
Ford was adamantly against labor unions. He explained his views on unions in Chapter 18 of My
Life and Work.[33] He thought they were too heavily influenced by some leaders who, despite
their ostensible good motives, would end up doing more harm than good for workers. Most
wanted to restrict productivity as a means to foster employment, but Ford saw this as selfdefeating because, in his view, productivity was necessary for any economic prosperity to exist.
He believed that productivity gains that obviated certain jobs would nevertheless stimulate the
larger economy and thus grow new jobs elsewhere, whether within the same corporation or in
others. Ford also believed that union leaders had a perverse incentive to foment perpetual socioeconomic crisis as a way to maintain their own power. Meanwhile, he believed that smart
managers had an incentive to do right by their workers, because doing so would maximize their
own profits. (Ford did acknowledge, however, that many managers were basically too bad at
managing to understand this fact.) But Ford believed that eventually, if good managers such as
he could fend off the attacks of misguided people from both left and right (i.e., both socialists
and bad-manager reactionaries), the good managers would create a socio-economic system
wherein neither bad management nor bad unions could find enough support to continue existing.
To forestall union activity, Ford promoted Harry Bennett, a former Navy boxer, to head the
Service Department. Bennett employed various intimidation tactics to squash union
organizing.[34] The most famous incident, on May 26, 1937, involved Bennett's security men
beating with clubs UAW representatives, including Walter Reuther.[35] While Bennett's men
were beating the UAW representatives, the supervising police chief on the scene was Carl
Brooks, an alumnus of Bennett’s Service Department, and [Brooks] "did not give orders to
intervene."[36] The incident became known as The Battle of the Overpass.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Edsel (who was president of the company) thought Ford had to
come to some sort of collective bargaining agreement with the unions because the violence, work
disruptions, and bitter stalemates could not go on forever. But Henry (who still had the final veto
in the company on a de facto basis even if not an official one) refused to cooperate. For several
years, he kept Bennett in charge of talking to the unions that were trying to organize the Ford
Motor Company. Sorensen's memoir[37] makes clear that Henry's purpose in putting Bennett in
charge was to make sure no agreements were ever reached.
The Ford Motor Company was the last Detroit automaker to recognize the United Auto Workers
union (UAW). A sit-down strike by the UAW union in April 1941 closed the River Rouge Plant.
Sorensen recounted[38] that a distraught Henry Ford was very close to following through with a
threat to break up the company rather than cooperate, but his wife Clara told him she would
leave him if he destroyed the family business. In her view, it would not be worth the chaos it
would create. Henry complied with his wife's ultimatum, and even agreed with her in
retrospect.[38] Overnight, the Ford Motor Company went from the most stubborn holdout among
automakers to the one with the most favorable UAW contract terms.[38] The contract was signed
in June 1941.[38]
Ford Airplane Company
Ford, like other automobile companies, entered the aviation business during World War I,
building Liberty engines. After the war, it returned to auto manufacturing until 1925, when Ford
acquired the Stout Metal Airplane Company.
Ford 4-AT-F (EC-RRA) of the Spanish Republican Airline, L.A.P.E.
Ford's most successful aircraft was the Ford 4AT Trimotor, often called the "Tin Goose" because
of its corrugated metal construction. It used a new alloy called Alclad that combined the
corrosion resistance of aluminum with the strength of duralumin. The plane was similar to
Fokker's V.VII-3m, and some say that Ford's engineers surreptitiously measured the Fokker
plane and then copied it. The Trimotor first flew on June 11, 1926, and was the first successful
U.S. passenger airliner, accommodating about 12 passengers in a rather uncomfortable fashion.
Several variants were also used by the U.S. Army. Ford has been honored by the Smithsonian
Institution for changing the aviation industry. 199 Trimotors were built before it was
discontinued in 1933, when the Ford Airplane Division shut down because of poor sales during
the Great Depression.
Willow Run
Main article: Willow Run
Peace and war
World War I era
Ford opposed war, which he viewed as a terrible waste.[39][40] Ford became highly critical of
those who he felt financed war, and he tried to stop them. In 1915, the pacifist Rosika
Schwimmer gained favor with Ford, who agreed to fund a Peace Ship to Europe, where World
War I was raging. He and about 170 other prominent peace leaders traveled there. Ford's
Episcopalian pastor, Reverend Samuel S. Marquis, accompanied him on the mission. Marquis
headed Ford's Sociology Department from 1913 to 1921. Ford talked to President Wilson about
the mission but had no government support. His group went to neutral Sweden and the
Netherlands to meet with peace activists. A target of much ridicule, Ford left the ship as soon as
it reached Sweden.[41]
Ford plants in the United Kingdom produced tractors to increase the British food supply, as well
as trucks and aircraft engines. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917 the company became a
major supplier of weapons, especially the Liberty engine for airplanes, and anti-submarine
boats.[42]
In 1918, with the war on and the League of Nations a growing issue in global politics, President
Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, encouraged Ford to run for a Michigan seat in the U.S. Senate.
Wilson believed that Ford could tip the scales in Congress in favor of Wilson's proposed League.
"You are the only man in Michigan who can be elected and help bring about the peace you so
desire," the president wrote Ford. Ford wrote back: "If they want to elect me let them do so, but I
won't make a penny's investment." Ford did run, however, and came within 4,500 votes of
winning, out of more than 400,000 cast statewide.[43] Ford remained a staunch Wilsonian and
supporter of the League. When Wilson made a major speaking tour in the summer of 1919 to
promote the League, Ford helped fund the attendant publicity.[44][45]
The coming of World War II and Ford's mental collapse
Ford had opposed America's entry into World War II[35][46] and continued to believe that
international business could generate the prosperity that would head off wars. Ford "insisted that
war was the product of greedy financiers who sought profit in human destruction"; in 1939 he
went so far as to claim that the torpedoing of U.S. merchant ships by German submarines was
the result of conspiratorial activities undertaken by financier war-makers.[47] The financiers to
whom he was referring was Ford's code for Jews; he had also accused Jews of fomenting the
First World War (see the section on his anti-Semitism below).[35][48] In the run-up to World War
II and when the war erupted in 1939, he reported that he did not want to trade with belligerents.
Like many other businessmen of the Great Depression era, he never liked or entirely trusted the
Franklin Roosevelt Administration, and thought Roosevelt was inching the U.S. closer to war.
However, Ford continued to do business with Nazi Germany, including the manufacture of war
materiel.[35] Beginning in 1940, with the requisitioning of between 100 and 200 French POWs to
work as slave laborers, Ford-Werke contravened Article 31 of the 1929 Geneva Convention.[35]
At that time, which was before the U.S. entered the War and still had full diplomatic relations
with Nazi Germany, Ford-Werke was under the control of the Ford Motor Company. The
number of slave laborers grew as the war expanded although Wallace made it clear that
companies in Germany were not required by the Nazi authorities to use slave laborers.
When Rolls-Royce sought a U.S. manufacturer as an alternative source for the Merlin engine (as
fitted to Spitfire and Hurricane fighters), Ford first agreed to do so and then reneged. He "lined
up behind the war effort" when the U.S. entered in late 1941.[49] His support of the American war
effort, however, was problematic.
Once the U.S. entered the war, Ford directed the Ford Motor Company to construct a vast new
purpose-built factory at Willow Run near Detroit, Michigan. Ford broke ground on Willow Run
in the spring of 1941, and the first B-24 came off the line in October 1942. At 3,500,000 sq ft
(330,000 m2), it was the largest assembly line in the world at the time. At its peak in 1944, the
Willow Run plant produced 650 B-24s per month, and by 1945 Ford was completing each B-24
in eighteen hours, with one rolling off the assembly line every 58 minutes.[50] Ford produced
9,000 B-24s at Willow Run, half of the 18,000 total B-24s produced during the war.[50]
When Edsel Ford died prematurely in 1943, Henry Ford nominally resumed control of the
company, but a series of strokes in the late 1930s had left him increasingly debilitated, and his
mental ability was fading. Ford was increasingly sidelined, and others made decisions in his
name.[51] The company was in fact controlled by a handful of senior executives led by Charles
Sorensen, an important engineer and production executive at Ford; and Harry Bennett, the chief
of Ford's Service Unit, Ford's paramilitary force that spied on, and enforced discipline upon,
Ford employees. Ford grew jealous of the publicity Sorensen received and forced Sorensen out
in 1944.[52] Ford's incompetence led to discussions in Washington about how to restore the
company, whether by wartime government fiat, or by instigating some sort of coup among
executives and directors.[53] Nothing happened until 1945 when, with bankruptcy a serious risk,
Edsel's widow led an ouster and installed her son, Henry Ford II, as
president.[54][better source needed][55] The young man took full control, and forced out Harry Bennett in
a purge of the old guard in 1947.
The Dearborn Independent and anti-Semitism
Main article: Dearborn Independent
The Ford publication The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem. Articles from The
Dearborn Independent, 1920
In the early 1920s, Ford sponsored a weekly newspaper that published strongly anti-Semitic
views. At the same time, Ford had a reputation as one of the few major corporations actively
hiring black workers, and was not accused of discrimination against Jewish workers or suppliers.
He also hired women and handicapped men at a time when doing so was uncommon.[56]
In 1918, Ford's closest aide and private secretary, Ernest G. Liebold, purchased an obscure
weekly newspaper for Ford, The Dearborn Independent. The Independent ran for eight years,
from 1920 until 1927, with Liebold as editor. Every Ford franchise nation-wide had to carry the
paper and distribute it to its customers.
The newspaper published The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which was discredited by The
Times of London as a forgery during the Independent's publishing run. The American Jewish
Historical Society described the ideas presented in the magazine as "anti-immigrant, anti-labor,
anti-liquor, and anti-Semitic." In February 1921, the New York World published an interview
with Ford, in which he said: "The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they
fit in with what is going on." During this period, Ford emerged as "a respected spokesman for
right-wing extremism and religious prejudice," reaching around 700,000 readers through his
newspaper.[57] The 2010 documentary film Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story (written
by Pulitzer Prize winner Ira Berkow) states that Ford wrote on May 22, 1920: "If fans wish to
know the trouble with American baseball they have it in three words—too much Jew."[58]
In Germany, Ford's anti-Semitic articles from The Dearborn Independent were issued in four
volumes, cumulatively titled The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem published by
Theodor Fritsch, founder of several anti-Semitic parties and a member of the Reichstag. In a
letter written in 1924, Heinrich Himmler described Ford as "one of our most valuable, important,
and witty fighters."[59] Ford is the only American mentioned in Mein Kampf.[60][61] Adolf Hitler
wrote, "only a single great man, Ford, [who], to [the Jews'] fury, still maintains full
independence...[from] the controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and
twenty millions." Speaking in 1931 to a Detroit News reporter, Hitler said he regarded Ford as
his "inspiration," explaining his reason for keeping Ford's life-size portrait next to his desk.[62]
Steven Watts wrote that Hitler "revered" Ford, proclaiming that "I shall do my best to put his
theories into practice in Germany," and modeling the Volkswagen, the people's car, on the Model
T.[63]
Grand Cross of the German Eagle, an award bestowed on Ford by Nazi Germany
On February 1, 1924, Ford received Kurt Ludecke, a representative of Hitler, at home. Ludecke
was introduced to Ford by Siegfried Wagner (son of the composer Richard Wagner) and his wife
Winifred, both Nazi sympathizers and anti-Semites. Ludecke asked Ford for a contribution to the
Nazi cause, but was apparently refused.[64]
While Ford's articles were denounced by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the articles
explicitly condemned pogroms and violence against Jews (Volume 4, Chapter 80), but blamed
the Jews for provoking incidents of mass violence.[65] None of this work was written by Ford, but
he allowed his name to be used as author. According to trial testimony, he wrote almost nothing.
Friends and business associates have said they warned Ford about the contents of the
Independent and that he probably never read the articles. (He claimed he only read the
headlines.)[66] However, court testimony in a libel suit, brought by one of the targets of the
newspaper, alleged that Ford did know about the contents of the Independent in advance of
publication.[35]
A libel lawsuit was brought by San Francisco lawyer and Jewish farm cooperative organizer
Aaron Sapiro in response to the anti-Semitic remarks, and led Ford to close the Independent in
December 1927. News reports at the time quoted him as saying he was shocked by the content
and unaware of its nature. During the trial, the editor of Ford's "Own Page," William Cameron,
testified that Ford had nothing to do with the editorials even though they were under his byline.
Cameron testified at the libel trial that he never discussed the content of the pages or sent them to
Ford for his approval.[67] Investigative journalist Max Wallace noted that "whatever credibility
this absurd claim may have had was soon undermined when James M. Miller, a former Dearborn
Independent employee, swore under oath that Ford had told him he intended to expose
Sapiro."[68]
Michael Barkun observed,
That Cameron would have continued to publish such anti-Semitic material without Ford's
explicit instructions seemed unthinkable to those who knew both men. Mrs. Stanley Ruddiman, a
Ford family intimate, remarked that 'I don't think Mr. Cameron ever wrote anything for
publication without Mr. Ford's approval.'[69]
According to Spencer Blakeslee,
The ADL mobilized prominent Jews and non-Jews to publicly oppose Ford's message. They
formed a coalition of Jewish groups for the same purpose and raised constant objections in the
Detroit press. Before leaving his presidency early in 1921, Woodrow Wilson joined other leading
Americans in a statement that rebuked Ford and others for their anti-Semitic campaign. A
boycott against Ford products by Jews and liberal Christians also had an impact, and Ford shut
down the paper in 1927, recanting his views in a public letter to Sigmund Livingston, ADL.[70]
Wallace also found that Ford's apology was likely, at least partly, motivated by a business that
was slumping as result of his anti-Semitism repelling potential buyers of Ford cars.[35] Up until
the apology, a considerable number of dealers, who had been required to make sure that buyers
of Ford cars received the Independent, bought up and destroyed copies of the newspaper rather
than alienate customers.[35]
Ford's 1927 apology was well received. "Four-Fifths of the hundreds of letters addressed to Ford
in July 1927 were from Jews, and almost without exception they praised the Industrialist."[71] In
January 1937, a Ford statement to the Detroit Jewish Chronicle disavowed "any connection
whatsoever with the publication in Germany of a book known as the International Jew."[71]
According to Pool and Pool (1978),[72] Ford's retraction and apology (which were written by
others) were not even truly signed by him (rather, his signature was forged by Harry Bennett),
and Ford never privately recanted his anti-Semitic views, stating in 1940, "I hope to republish
The International Jew again some time."
In July 1938, before the outbreak of war, the German consul at Cleveland gave Ford, on his 75th
birthday, the award of the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest medal Nazi Germany
could bestow on a foreigner.[62] James D. Mooney, vice-president of overseas operations for
General Motors, received a similar medal, the Merit Cross of the German Eagle, First
Class.[62][73]
Distribution of International Jew was halted in 1942 through legal action by Ford, despite
complications from a lack of copyright.[71] It is still banned in Germany. Extremist groups often
recycle the material; it still appears on antisemitic and neo-Nazi websites.
Testifying at Nuremberg, convicted Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach who, in his role as
military governor of Vienna deported 65,000 Jews to camps in Poland, stated,
The decisive anti-Semitic book I was reading and the book that influenced my comrades was ...
that book by Henry Ford, "The International Jew." I read it and became anti-Semitic. The book
made a great influence on myself and my friends because we saw in Henry Ford the
representative of success and also the representative of a progressive social policy.[74][75]
Robert Lacey wrote in Ford: The Men and the Machines that a close Willow Run associate of
Ford reported that when he was shown newsreel footage of the Nazi concentration camps, he
"was confronted with the atrocities which finally and unanswerable laid bare the bestiality of the
prejudice to which he contributed, he collapsed with a stroke – his last and most serious."[76]
Ford had suffered previous stokes and his final cerebral hemorrhage occurred in 1947 at age
83.[77]
International business
Ford's philosophy was one of economic independence for the United States. His River Rouge
Plant became the world's largest industrial complex, pursuing vertical integration to such an
extent that it could produce its own steel. Ford's goal was to produce a vehicle from scratch
without reliance on foreign trade. He believed in the global expansion of his company. He
believed that international trade and cooperation led to international peace, and he used the
assembly line process and production of the Model T to demonstrate it.[78]
Edsel Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and Henry Ford pose in the Ford hangar during Lindbergh's
August 1927 visit.
He opened Ford assembly plants in Britain and Canada in 1911, and soon became the biggest
automotive producer in those countries. In 1912, Ford cooperated with Giovanni Agnelli of Fiat
to launch the first Italian automotive assembly plants. The first plants in Germany were built in
the 1920s with the encouragement of Herbert Hoover and the Commerce Department, which
agreed with Ford's theory that international trade was essential to world peace.[79] In the 1920s,
Ford also opened plants in Australia, India, and France, and by 1929, he had successful
dealerships on six continents. Ford experimented with a commercial rubber plantation in the
Amazon jungle called Fordlândia; it was one of his few failures. In 1929, Ford accepted Joseph
Stalin's invitation to build a model plant (NNAZ, today GAZ) at Gorky, a city now known under
its historical name Nizhny Novgorod. He sent American engineers and technicians to the Soviet
Union to help set it up,[80] including future labor leader Walter Reuther.[81]
The Ford Motor Company had the policy of doing business in any nation where the United States
had diplomatic relations. It set up numerous subsidiaries that sold cars and trucks and sometimes
assembled them:
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Ford of Australia
Ford of Britain
Ford of Argentina
Ford of Brazil
Ford of Canada
Ford of Europe
Ford India
Ford South Africa
Ford Mexico
Ford Philippines
Henry Ford in Germany; September 1930
By 1932, Ford was manufacturing one third of all the world's automobiles. Ford's image
transfixed Europeans, especially the Germans, arousing the "fear of some, the infatuation of
others, and the fascination among all".[82] Germans who discussed "Fordism" often believed that
it represented something quintessentially American. They saw the size, tempo, standardization,
and philosophy of production demonstrated at the Ford Works as a national service—an
"American thing" that represented the culture of United States. Both supporters and critics
insisted that Fordism epitomized American capitalist development, and that the auto industry
was the key to understanding economic and social relations in the United States. As one German
explained, "Automobiles have so completely changed the American's mode of life that today one
can hardly imagine being without a car. It is difficult to remember what life was like before Mr.
Ford began preaching his doctrine of salvation".[83] For many Germans, Ford embodied the
essence of successful Americanism.
In My Life and Work, Ford predicted that if greed, racism, and short-sightedness could be
overcome, then economic and technological development throughout the world would progress
to the point that international trade would no longer be based on (what today would be called)
colonial or neocolonial models and would truly benefit all peoples.[84] His ideas in this passage
were vague, but they were idealistic.
Racing
Ford (standing) launched Barney Oldfield's career in 1902
Ford maintained an interest in auto racing from 1901 to 1913 and began his involvement in the
sport as both a builder and a driver, later turning the wheel over to hired drivers. He entered
stripped-down Model Ts in races, finishing first (although later disqualified) in an "ocean-toocean" (across the United States) race in 1909, and setting a one-mile (1.6 km) oval speed record
at Detroit Fairgrounds in 1911 with driver Frank Kulick. In 1913, Ford attempted to enter a
reworked Model T in the Indianapolis 500 but was told rules required the addition of another
1,000 pounds (450 kg) to the car before it could qualify. Ford dropped out of the race and soon
thereafter dropped out of racing permanently, citing dissatisfaction with the sport's rules,
demands on his time by the booming production of the Model Ts, and his low opinion of racing
as a worthwhile activity.
In My Life and Work Ford speaks (briefly) of racing in a rather dismissive tone, as something
that is not at all a good measure of automobiles in general. He describes himself as someone who
raced only because in the 1890s through 1910s, one had to race because prevailing ignorance
held that racing was the way to prove the worth of an automobile. Ford did not agree. But he was
determined that as long as this was the definition of success (flawed though the definition was),
then his cars would be the best that there were at racing.[85] Throughout the book, he continually
returns to ideals such as transportation, production efficiency, affordability, reliability, fuel
efficiency, economic prosperity, and the automation of drudgery in farming and industry, but
rarely mentions, and rather belittles, the idea of merely going fast from point A to point B.
Nevertheless, Ford did make quite an impact on auto racing during his racing years, and he was
inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1996.
Later career and death
When Edsel, president of Ford Motor Company, died of cancer in May 1943, the elderly and
ailing Henry Ford decided to assume the presidency. By this point in his life, he had had several
cardiovascular events (variously cited as heart attack or stroke) and was mentally inconsistent,
suspicious, and generally no longer fit for such immense responsibilities.[86]
Most of the directors did not want to see him as president. But for the previous 20 years, though
he had long been without any official executive title, he had always had de facto control over the
company; the board and the management had never seriously defied him, and this moment was
not different. The directors elected him,[87] and he served until the end of the war. During this
period the company began to decline, losing more than $10 million a month ($136,290,000 a
month today). The administration of President Franklin Roosevelt had been considering a
government takeover of the company in order to ensure continued war production,[53] but the
idea never progressed.
Ford grave, Ford Cemetery
In ill health, Ford ceded the presidency to his grandson Henry Ford II in September 1945 and
went into retirement. He died in 1947 of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 83 in Fair Lane, his
Dearborn estate. A public viewing was held at Greenfield Village where up to 5,000 people per
hour filed past the casket. Funeral services were held in Detroit's Cathedral Church of St. Paul
and he was buried in the Ford Cemetery in Detroit.[77][88]
Personal interests
A compendium of short biographies of famous Freemasons, published by a Freemason lodge,
lists Ford as a member.[89] The Grand Lodge of New York confirms that Ford was a Freemason,
and was raised in Palestine Lodge No. 357, Detroit, in 1894. When he received his 33rd in 1940,
he said, "Masonry is the best balance wheel the United States has."[90]
In 1923, Ford's pastor, and head of his sociology department, Episcopal minister Samuel S.
Marquis, claimed that Ford believed, or "once believed," in reincarnation.[91]
Ford published an anti-smoking book, circulated to youth in 1914, called The Case Against the
Little White Slaver, which documented many dangers of cigarette smoking attested to by many
researchers and luminaries.[92] At the time smoking was ubiquitous and was not yet widely
associated with health detriment, so Ford's opposition to cigarettes was unusual.
Interest in materials science and engineering
Henry Ford long had an interest in materials science and engineering. He enthusiastically
described his company's adoption of vanadium steel alloys and subsequent metallurgic R&D
work.[93]
Ford long had an interest in plastics developed from agricultural products, especially soybeans.
He cultivated a relationship with George Washington Carver for this purpose.[citation needed]
Soybean-based plastics were used in Ford automobiles throughout the 1930s in plastic parts such
as car horns, in paint, etc. This project culminated in 1942, when Ford patented an automobile
made almost entirely of plastic, attached to a tubular welded frame. It weighed 30% less than a
steel car and was said to be able to withstand blows ten times greater than could steel.
Furthermore, it ran on grain alcohol (ethanol) instead of gasoline. The design never caught on.[94]
Ford was interested in engineered woods ("Better wood can be made than is grown"[95]) (at this
time plywood and particle board were little more than experimental ideas); corn as a fuel source,
via both corn oil and ethanol;[96] and the potential uses of cotton.[95] Ford was instrumental in
developing charcoal briquets, under the brand name "Kingsford". His brother in law, E.G.
Kingsford, used wood scraps from the Ford factory to make the briquets.
Ford was a prolific inventor and was awarded 161 U.S. patents.
Florida and Georgia residences and community
Ford had a vacation residence in Fort Myers, FL next to Thomas Edison that he bought in 1915
and used until approximately 1930. This home is next to the winter home of his dear friend
Thomas Edison. It is still in existence today and is open as a museum.
He also had a vacation home (known today as the "Ford Plantation") in Richmond Hill, Georgia
which is still in existence today as a private community. Henry started buying land in this area
and eventually owned 70,000 acres (110 square miles) there. In 1936, Ford broke ground for a
beautiful Greek revival style mansion on the banks of the Ogeechee River on the site of a 1730's
plantation. The grand house, made of Savannah-gray brick, had marble steps, air conditioning,
and an elevator. It sat on 55 acres of manicured lawns and flowering gardens. The house became
the center of social gatherings with visitations by the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and the DuPonts.
It remains the centerpiece of The Ford Plantation today. Mr. Ford converted the 1870s–era rice
mill into his personal research laboratory and powerhouse and constructed an underground
tunnel from there to the new home, providing it with steam. He contributed substantially to the
community, building a chapel and schoolhouse and employing numerous local residents.
Preserving Americana
Ford had an interest in "Americana". In the 1920s, Ford began work to turn Sudbury,
Massachusetts, into a themed historical village. He moved the schoolhouse supposedly referred
to in the nursery rhyme, "Mary had a little lamb", from Sterling, Massachusetts, and purchased
the historic Wayside Inn. This plan never saw fruition. Ford repeated the concept of collecting
historic structures with the creation of Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. It may have
inspired the creation of Old Sturbridge Village as well. About the same time, he began collecting
materials for his museum, which had a theme of practical technology. It was opened in 1929 as
the Edison Institute. Although greatly modernized, the museum continues today.
In popular culture
Mr. & Mrs. Henry Ford in his first car, the Ford Quadricycle
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In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), society is organized on "Fordist" lines, the
years are dated A.F. or Anno Ford ("In the Year of our Ford"), and the expression "My
Ford" is used instead of "My Lord". The Christian cross is replaced with a capital "T" for
Model-T.
Upton Sinclair created a fictional description of Ford in the 1937 novel The Flivver King.
Symphonic composer Ferde Grofe composed a tone poem in Henry Ford's honor (1938).
Ford is treated as a character in several historical novels, notably E. L. Doctorow's
Ragtime (1975), and Richard Powers' novel Three Farmers on the Way to a Dance
(1985).
Ford, his family, and his company were the subjects of a 1986 biography by Robert
Lacey entitled Ford: The Men and the Machine. The book was adapted in 1987 into a
film starring Cliff Robertson and Michael Ironside.
In the 2005 alternative history novel The Plot Against America, Philip Roth features Ford
as Secretary of Interior in a fictional Charles Lindbergh presidential administration.
The British author Douglas Galbraith uses the event of the Ford Peace Ship as the center
of his novel King Henry (2007).[97]
Ford appears as a Great Builder in the 2008 strategy video game Civilization
Revolution.[98]
Honors and recognition
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In December 1999, Ford was among 18 included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired
People of the 20th Century, from a poll conducted of the American people.
In 1928, Ford was awarded the Franklin Institute's Elliott Cresson Medal.
In 1938, Ford was awarded Nazi Germany's Grand Cross of the German Eagle, a medal
given to foreigners sympathetic to Nazism.[99]
The United States Postal Service honored Ford with a Prominent Americans series
(1965–1978) 12¢ postage stamp.
See also
Metro Detroit portal
Biography portal
Cars portal
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Book: Henry Ford
Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad
Dodge v. Ford Motor Company
Edison and Ford Winter Estates
Fair Lane
Ferdinand Porsche
Ford family tree
List of people on the cover of Time Magazine: 1920s
List of wealthiest historical figures
William B. Mayo
Notes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
"The Life of Henry Ford". Retrieved 28 November 2013.
Baldwin, N. (2001). Henry Ford and the Jews. New York: Public Affairs.
www.hfmgv.org The Henry Ford Museum: The Life of Henry Ford
"The history of Ford in Ireland Family Crest and Name History".
Ford, My Life and Work, 22–24; Nevins and Hill, Ford TMC, 58.
Evans, Harold "They Made America" Little, Brown and Company. New York
Ford, My Life and Work, 24; Edward A. Guest "Henry Ford Talks About His Mother,"
American Magazine, July 1923, 11–15, 116–120.
8. Steven Watts, The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century (Random
House, Inc., 2006), pg. 28
http://books.google.com/books?id=LIDyU91YMHAC&source=gbs_navlinks_s
9. "Widow of Automobile Pioneer, Victim of Coronary Occlusion, Survived Him Three
Years". Associated Press. September 29, 1950. "Friday, Sept. 29 (Associated Press) Mrs.
Clara Bryant Ford, 84 year-old widow of Henry Ford, died at 2 A. M. today in Henry
Ford Hospital. A family spokesman said her death was the result of an acute coronary
occlusion."
10. "Edsel Ford Dies in Detroit at 49. Motor Company President, the Only Son of Its
Founder, Had Long Been Ill.". Associated Press. May 26, 1943. "Edsel Ford, 49-year-old
president of the Ford Motor Company, died this morning at his home at Grosse Pointe
Shores following an illness of six weeks."
11. The Showroom of Automotive History: 1896 Quadricycle
12. Ford R. Bryan, "The Birth of Ford Motor Company", Henry Ford Heritage Association,
retrieved August 20, 2012.
13. Richard Bak, Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire (2003) pp 54–63
14. Nevins (1954) 1:387–415
15. Lewis 1976, pp 41–59
16. Ford & Crowther 1922, p. 72.
17. Watts, pp 243–48
18. Nevins and Hill (1957) vol 2
19. Nevins and Hill (1957) 2:409-36
20. Sorensen 1956, p. 223.
21. Nevins and Hill (1957) 2:459-78
22. Nevins and Hill (1957) 2:508-40
23. Using the consumer price index, this was equivalent to $111.10 per day in 2008 dollars.
24. Lewis, Public Image p 71
25. Nevins, Ford 1:528-41
26. Watts, People's Tycoon, pp. 178–94
27. Ford & Crowther 1922, p. 126.
28. Samuel Crowther Henry Ford: "Why I Favor Five Days' Work With Six Days' Pay",
World's Work, October 1926 pp. 613–616
29. Watts, People's Tycoon, pp. 193–94
30. Ford & Crowther 1922, pp. 126–130.
31. Lewis, Public Image, 69–70
32. Ford & Crowther 1922, p. 130.
33. Ford & Crowther 1922, pp. 253–266.
34. Harris, J: Henry Ford, pages 91–92. Moffa Press, 1984.
35. Wallace, Max. (2003). The American axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the rise
of the Third Reich. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
36. Wallace, 2003, p. 311.
37. Sorensen 1956, p. 261.
38. Sorensen 1956, pp. 266–272.
39. Henry Ford, Biography (March 25, 1999). A&E Television.
40. Michigan History, January/February 1993
41. Watts (2005). The People's Tycoon. pp. 225–249.
42. Allan Nevins and Frank Ernest Hill, Ford: Expansion and Challenge, 1915–1933 (1957)
pp 55–85
43. Banham, Russ. (2002) The Ford Century. Tehabi Books. ISBN 1-887656-88-X, p. 44.
44. Watts (2005). The People's Tycoon. p. 378.
45. John Milton Cooper Jr, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (2009) p 521
46. Baldwin, Neil (2001). Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate. New
York: Public Affairs.
47. Stephen Watts, The People's Tycoon (2005) p 505
48. Baldwin
49. Watts, The People's Tycoon (2005) p 508
50. Nolan, Jenny. "Michigan History: Willow Run and the Arsenal of Democracy." The
Detroit News, 28 January 1997. Retrieved: 7 August 2010.
51. Watts, The People's Tycoon (2005) p 503
52. Watts, The People's Tycoon (2005) p 522-5
53. Sorensen 1956, pp. 324–333.
54. Yates, Brock. "10 Best Moguls", in Car and Driver, 1/88, p.45.
55. Watts, The People's Tycoon (2005) p 522-7
56. Howard P. Segal (2008). Recasting the Machine Age: Henry Ford's Village Industries.
p. 46.
57. Glock, Charles Y. and Quinley, Harold E. (1983). Anti-Semitism in America. Transaction
Publishers. ISBN 0-87855-940-X, p. 168.
58. Zeitlin, Alan (November 15, 2010). "Jews and Baseball Is A Film You Should Catch".
The New York Blueprint. Archived from the original on December 10, 2010. Retrieved
February 6, 2014.
59. Pfal-Traughber, Armin (1993). Der antisemitisch-antifreimaurerische
Verschwörungsmythos in der Weimarer Republik und im NS-Staat. Vienna: Braumüller.
p. 39.
60. Mein Kampf, p. 639
61. Baldwin, p. 181
62. "Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged Nazi Collaboration". Washington Post. November
30, 1998. pp. A01. Retrieved March 5, 2008.
63. Watts, p. xi.
64. Max Wallace The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the Rise of the
Third Reich, (Macmillan, 2004), pp.50–54, ISBN 0-312-33531-8. Years later, in 1977,
Winifred claimed that Ford had told her that he had helped finance Hitler. This anecdote
is the suggestion that Ford made a contribution. The company has always denied that any
contribution was made, and no documentary evidence has ever been found. Ibid p. 54.
See also Neil Baldwin, Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate, (Public
Affairs, 2002), pp. 185–89, ISBN 1-58648-163-0.
65. Ford, Henry (2003). The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem. Kessinger
Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-7829-3, p. 61.
66. Watts pp x, 376–387; Lewis (1976) pp 135–59.
67. Lewis, (1976) pp. 140–56; Baldwin p 220–21.
68. Wallace, Max. (2003). The American Axis: Ford, Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third
Reich. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 30
69. Barkun, Michael (1996). Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian
Identity Movement. UNC Press. ISBN 0-8078-4638-4, p. 35.
70. Blakeslee, Spencer (2000). The Death of American Antisemitism. Praeger/Greenwood.
ISBN 0-275-96508-2, p. 83.
71. Lewis, David I. (1976). The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and
His Company. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-1553-4., pp. 146–154.
72. Pool & Pool 1978
73. Farber, David R. (2002). Sloan Rules: Alfred P. Sloan and the Triumph of General
Motors. University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-23804-0, p. 228.
74. Baldur von Schirach before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. May 23,
1946.
75. "See German Wikipedia for the untranslated version".
76. Lacey 1986, pp. 218–219; which in turn cites:
 Bentley Historical Library, Josephine Fellows Gomon papers, Box 10, draft
manuscript, The Poor Mr Ford.
77. "Leader in Production Founded Vast Empire in Motors in 1903. He had Retired in 1945.
Began Company With Capital of $28,000 Invested by His Friends and Neighbors. Henry
Ford Is Dead. Founder of Vast Automotive Empire and Leader in Mass Production.".
Associated Press. April 8, 1947. "Henry Ford, noted automotive pioneer, died at 11:40
tonight at the age of 83. He had retired a little more than a year and a half ago from active
direction of the great industrial empire he founded in 1903."
78. Watts 236–40
79. Wilkins
80. Sorensen 1956, pp. 193–216.
81. Nevins and Hill (1957) 2:673-83
82. Nolan p. 31.
83. Nolan, p. 31.
84. Ford & Crowther 1922, pp. 242–244.
85. Ford & Crowther 1922, p. 50.
86. Sorensen 1956, pp. 100,266,271–272,310–314
87. Sorensen 1956, pp. 325–26.
88. Don Lochbeiler (July 22, 1997). "'I think Mr. Ford is Leaving Us'". The Detroit News
Michigan History (detnews.com). Retrieved October 29, 2010.
89. Denslow 2004, p. 62.
90. "Famous Masons". MWGLNY. January 2014.
91. Marquis, Samuel S. ([1923]/2007). Henry Ford: An Interpretation. Wayne State
University Press.
92. The Case Against the Little White Slaver http://medicolegal.tripod.com/ford1914.htm
93. Ford 1922, pp. 18,65–67.
94. Lewis 1995.
95. Ford 1922, p. 281.
96. Ford 1922, pp. 275–276.
97. RandomHouse.ca|Books|King Henry by Douglas Galbraith
98. Civilization Revolution: Great People "CivFanatics" Retrieved on September 4, 2009
99. Wallace, Max. The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the Rise of the
Third Reich. New York: St. Martin's Press.
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Citation for succession box: "Henry Ford & Family". Retrieved May 29, 2013. "Henry
Ford resigned for the second time at the end of World War II. His eldest grandson, Henry
Ford II, became president on September 21, 1945. Even as Henry Ford II drove the
industry's first postwar car off the assembly line, he was making plans to reorganize and
decentralize the company to resume its prewar position as a major force in a fiercely
competitive auto industry. Henry Ford II provided strong leadership for Ford Motor
Company from the postwar era into the 1980s. He was president from 1945 until 1960
and chief executive officer from 1945 until 1979. He was chairman of the board of
directors from 1960 until 1980, and remained as chairman of the finance committee from
1980 until his death in 1987."
References
Memoirs by Ford Motor Company principals
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Ford, Henry; Crowther, Samuel (1922), My Life and Work, Garden City, New York,
USA: Garden City Publishing Company, Inc. Various republications, including ISBN
9781406500189. Original is public domain in U.S. Also available at Google Books.
Ford, Henry; Crowther, Samuel (1926). Today and Tomorrow. Garden City, New York,
USA: Doubleday, Page & Company. Co-edition, 1926, London, William Heinemann.
Various republications, including ISBN 0-915299-36-4.
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Ford, Henry; Crowther, Samuel (1930). Moving Forward. Garden City, New York,
USA: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc. Co-edition, 1931, London, William
Heinemann.
Ford, Henry; Crowther, Samuel (1930). Edison as I Know Him. New York:
Cosmopolitan Book Corporation. Apparent co-edition, 1930, as My Friend Mr. Edison,
London, Ernest Benn. Republished as Edison as I Knew Him by American Thought and
Action, San Diego, 1966, OCLC 3456201. Republished as Edison as I Know Him by
Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4325-6158-1.
Bennett, Harry; with Marcus, Paul (1951). We Never Called Him Henry. New York:
Fawcett Publications. LCCN 51036122..
Sorensen, Charles E.; with Williamson, Samuel T. (1956), My Forty Years with Ford,
New York, New York, USA: Norton, LCCN 56010854. Various republications,
including ISBN 9780814332795.
Biographies
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Bak, Richard (2003). Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire. Wiley ISBN 0471-23487-7
Brinkley, Douglas G. Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of
Progress (2003)
Halberstam, David. "Citizen Ford" American Heritage 1986 37(6): 49–64. interpretive
essay
Jardim, Anne. The First Henry Ford: A Study in Personality and Business Leadership
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology Press 1970.
Lacey, Robert. Ford: The Men and the Machine Little, Brown, 1986. popular biography
Lewis, David I. (1976). The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and
His Company. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-1553-4.
Nevins, Allan; Frank Ernest Hill (1954). Ford: The Times, The Man, The Company. New
York: Charles Scribners' Sons. ACLS e-book
Nevins, Allan; Frank Ernest Hill (1957). Ford: Expansion and Challenge, 1915–1933.
New York: Charles Scribners' Sons. ACLS e-book
Nevins, Allan; Frank Ernest Hill (1962). Ford: Decline and Rebirth, 1933–1962. New
York: Charles Scribners' Sons. ACLS e-book
Nye, David E. Henry Ford: "Ignorant Idealist." Kennikat, 1979.
Watts, Steven. The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century (2005)
Specialized studies
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Batchelor, Ray. Henry Ford: Mass Production, Modernism and Design Manchester U.
Press, 1994.
Bonin, Huber et al. Ford, 1902–2003: The European History 2 vol Paris 2003. ISBN 2914369-06-9 scholarly essays in English; reviewed in * Holden, Len. "Fording the
Atlantic: Ford and Fordism in Europe" in Business History Volume 47, #Jan 1, 2005 pp
122–127
Brinkley, Douglas. "Prime Mover". American Heritage 2003 54(3): 44–53. on Model T
Bryan, Ford R. Henry's Lieutenants, 1993; ISBN 0-8143-2428-2
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Bryan, Ford R. Beyond the Model T: The Other Ventures of Henry Ford Wayne State
Press 1990.
Dempsey, Mary A. "Fordlandia," Michigan History 1994 78(4): 24–33. Ford's rubber
plantation in Brazil
Denslow, William R. (2004) [1957]. 10,000 Famous Freemasons. Part. One, Volume 1,
from A to J (Paperback republication ed.). Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-41797578-5. Foreword by Harry S. Truman.
Grandin, Greg. Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City.
London, Icon, 2010. ISBN 978-1-84831-147-3
Hounshell, David A. (1984), From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932:
The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States, Baltimore,
Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 978-0-8018-2975-8, LCCN 83016269
Jacobson, D. S. "The Political Economy of Industrial Location: the Ford Motor Company
at Cork 1912–26." Irish Economic and Social History 1977 4: 36–55. Ford and Irish
politics
Kraft, Barbara S. The Peace Ship: Henry Ford's Pacifist Adventure in the First World
War Macmillan, 1978
Levinson, William A. Henry Ford's Lean Vision: Enduring Principles from the First
Ford Motor Plant, 2002; ISBN 1-56327-260-1
Lewis, David L. "Ford and Kahn" Michigan History 1980 64(5): 17–28. Ford
commissioned architect Albert Kahn to design factories
Lewis, David L. "Henry Ford and His Magic Beanstalk" . Michigan History 1995 79(3):
10–17. Ford's interest in soybeans and plastics
Lewis, David L. "Working Side by Side" Michigan History 1993 77(1): 24–30. Why
Ford hired large numbers of black workers
McIntyre, Stephen L. "The Failure of Fordism: Reform of the Automobile Repair
Industry, 1913–1940: Technology and Culture 2000 41(2): 269–299. repair shops
rejected flat rates
Meyer, Stephen. The Five Dollar Day: Labor Management and Social Control in the
Ford Motor Company, 1908–1921 (1981)
Nolan; Mary. Visions of Modernity: American Business and the Modernization of
Germany (1994)
Daniel M. G. Raff and Lawrence H. Summers (October 1987). "Did Henry Ford Pay
Efficiency Wages?". Journal of Labor Economics 5 (4): S57–S86. doi:10.1086/298165.
Pietrykowski, Bruce. (1995). "Fordism at Ford: Spatial Decentralization and Labor
Segmentation at the Ford Motor Company, 1920–1950". Economic Geography 71 (4):
383–401. doi:10.2307/144424. JSTOR 144424.
Pool, James; Pool, Suzanne (1978), ""Chapter: Ford and Hitler"", Who Financed Hitler:
The Secret Funding of Hitler's Rise to Power, 1919-1933 (Dial Press), ISBN 9780708817568.
Roediger, David, ed "Americanism and Fordism—American Style: Kate Richards
O'hare's 'Has Henry Ford Made Good?'" Labor History 1988 29(2): 241–252. Socialist
praise for Ford in 1916
Segal, Howard P. "'Little Plants in the Country': Henry Ford's Village Industries and the
Beginning of Decentralized Technology in Modern America" Prospects 1988 13: 181–
223. Ford created 19 rural workplaces as pastoral retreats
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Tedlow, Richard S. "The Struggle for Dominance in the Automobile Market: the Early
Years of Ford and General Motors" Business and Economic History 1988 17: 49–62.
Ford stressed low price based on efficient factories but GM did better in oligopolistic
competition by including investment in manufacturing, marketing, and management.
Thomas, Robert Paul. "The Automobile Industry and its Tycoon" Explorations in
Entrepreneurial History 1969 6(2): 139–157. argues Ford did NOT have much influence
on US industry,
Valdés, Dennis Nodin. "Perspiring Capitalists: Latinos and the Henry Ford Service
School, 1918–1928" Aztlán 1981 12(2): 227–239. Ford brought hundreds of Mexicans in
for training as managers
Wilkins, Mira and Frank Ernest Hill, American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents
Wayne State University Press, 1964
Williams, Karel, Colin Haslam and John Williams, "Ford versus 'Fordism': The
Beginning of Mass Production?" Work, Employment & Society, Vol. 6, No. 4, 517–555
(1992), stress on Ford's flexibility and commitment to continuous improvements
Further reading
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Baldwin, Neil; Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate; PublicAffairs,
2000; ISBN 1-58648-163-0
Foust, James C. (1997). "Mass-produced Reform: Henry Ford's Dearborn Independent".
American Journalism 14 (3–4): 411–424. doi:10.1080/08821127.1997.10731933.
Higham, Charles, Trading with the Enemy The Nazi–American Money Plot 1933–1949 ;
Delacorte Press 1983
Kandel, Alan D. "Ford and Israel" Michigan Jewish History 1999 39: 13–17. covers
business and philanthropy
Lee, Albert; Henry Ford and the Jews; Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1980;
ISBN 0-8128-2701-5
Lewis, David L. (1984). "Henry Ford's Anti-semitism and its Repercussions". Michigan
Jewish History 24 (1): 3–10.
Reich, Simon (1999) "The Ford Motor Company and the Third Reich" Dimensions,
13(2):15–17 online
Ribuffo, Leo P. (1980). "Henry Ford and the International Jew". American Jewish
History 69 (4): 437–477.
Sapiro, Aaron L. (1982). "A Retrospective View of the Aaron Sapiro-Henry Ford Case".
Western States Jewish Historical Quarterly 15 (1): 79–84.
Silverstein, K. (2000). "Ford and the Führer". The Nation 270 (3): 11–16.
Wallace, Max The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of the
Third Reich; ISBN 0-312-33531-8
Woeste, Victoria Saker. (2004). "Insecure Equality: Louis Marshall, Henry Ford, and the
Problem of Defamatory Antisemitism, 1920–1929". Journal of American History 91 (3):
877–905. doi:10.2307/3662859. JSTOR 3662859.
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Henry Ford
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Henry Ford.
Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Henry Ford
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Automobile History Online—Henry Ford history and photos
Full text of My Life and Work from Project Gutenberg
Commentary on Ford's My Life and Work
Notable quotations and speech excerpts
Timeline
Quotes
Nevins and Hill tell the story of Peace Ship in American Heritage
College student reports on the 1915 Peace Ship expedition
The Henry Ford Heritage Association
American Corporations and Hitler
The Washington Post reports on Ford and General Motors response to alleged
collaboration with Nazi Germany
Power, Ignorance, and Anti-Semitism: Henry Ford and His War on Jews by Jonathan R.
Logsdon, Hanover Historical Review 1999
Review of "Henry Ford and The Jews" by Neil Baldwin
Review of "The People's Tycoon" by Steven Watts. Henry Ford may have regretted his
innovation (SF Chronicle)
Ford's middle name is James
Henry Ford — an American Experience documentary
Business positions
Preceded by
John S. Gray
Preceded by
Edsel Ford
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Henry Ford
Chief Executive Officer of the Ford
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1906–1919
Succeeded by
Edsel Ford
Chief Executive Officer of the Ford
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Motor Company
Henry Ford IISee "Notes" section
1943–1945
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VIAF: 76370475
LCCN: n79055385
ISNI: 0000 0001 1150 9871
GND: 118534300
BNF: cb122359096 (data)
ULAN: 500236857
NDL: 00466601
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