Wallace traces the mysterious evolution of Ford's anti-Semitism, which puzzled many observers at the time because Ford had displayed no anti-Semitic tendencies. On the contrary, he was known to be benevolent to his Jewish employees and to his neighbour, Detroit's most prominent rabbi, Leo Franklin. The book reveals evidence proving that Ford's private secretary, Ernest Liebold, had been a German spy during the First World War and who was largely responsible for turning Ford against the Jews by convincing him that Jewish communists were conspiring to unionize his company. Liebold also used the "Independent" as a vehicle to blame Jews the defeat of Germany in the First World War and for the rise of Bolshevism. A series of articles trumpeting that theme was translated into German and published in book form as "The International Jew". The book was later cited by many Nazis as deeply influential, including the leader of the Hitler Youth, Baldur von Schirach, who testified at the Nuremberg Trials, "I read it and became anti-Semitic."