I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford
Automobile mogul Henry Ford changed drastically during the years his Model T was produced. When in 1927 a funereal-looking Ford personally steered the 15 millionth T out of the factory, few remained of his associates who were present at the creation of the first T in 1908. Gone, too, was Ford’s reputation as a progressive industrialist. Opinion about The People’s Tycoon (title of Steven Watts’ 2005 biography) had nose-dived, and many thought he was an anti-Semite, a woolly-headed pacifist, and an authoritarian businessman, whose iconic car appeared antique-like compared to the competition. To track Ford’s metamorphosis, Snow agilely follows Ford’s relationship with the mechanical love of his life. During Ford’s years of tinkering, which culminated in the Model T, a gregarious, long-limbed Ford lopes through Snow’s pages, but he hunches over in ensuing ones, rejecting proposals to change the T en route to becoming an egotistic crank. Snow displays excellent storytelling skill as, stiffening by the years, Ford’s character develops through anecdotes and events in a lively narrative sequence that will engross readers curious about Ford and the Model T. --Gilbert Taylor