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The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century
Steven Watts
- List Price: $30.00
- Used Price: $10.87
- Publisher: Knopf
- Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 Stars
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Customer Reviews
- Henry Ford Book Christmas Gift
- Avg. Customer Rating: 5 Stars
- It's a great book with TONS of Information and in Wonderful condition which I received in a very timely manner and MY HUSBAND LOVED IT!
- A massive work, with threads of the story sometimes tricky to follow
- Avg. Customer Rating: 5 Stars
- Here was this supreme industrial genius, Henry Ford, with a dark side which was hard to understand. Do read the two professional reviews above. They cover some very good ground about this book between them. Beware that, like many overly-highbrow reviewers, both are guilty of the "but" syndrome: they will tell you that Henry Ford was the premier genius of the 20th century, BUT his personality wrecked a lot of things. That implied "but," as any negotiator or linguist will tell you, says that the reviewer didn't mean any of the good stuff before the "but." That's unfair. Reading this quite lengthy book cannot help but let the reader conclude that Ford muscled this country into the modern age we all have now.
The author often brings in Ford's own version of what a modern society ought to be. This is interesting, but not key to U.S. history. It is surprising that this very detailed book does not seem to distinguish the differing importance between: Ford's gifts to manufacturing technology and philosophy - decisive; and his wishes about how people should act in a society - irrelevant. The book makes this point indirectly many times, although the author seems not to catch on himself.
The only really troublesome aspect of "People's Tycoon" is the wandering too freely through time in telling the Ford story. Like many histories in print, the author follows a thread of thought through years, then comes back to other threads of thought (think back to some of our confusing 6th grade history books). If this drives you crazy, then pick another biography of Ford. This may not cause a problem for many readers, but it is understandable that it could be for some, and this is a cautionary note. For example, as Henry Ford lost his intellect slowly through the decades, one might want to know if these losses were happening at the same time as, say, when he was shamefully ranting about races and cultures, or about his misunderstandings with son Edsel Ford. Still, this large work is well researched, and very well worth the time.
- BARGAIN BOOKS!!!!!!!!!
- Avg. Customer Rating: 3 Stars
- This is a review of the condition of the book - not the content of the book.
I purchased this because I enjoy biographies of iconic American figures - and at 7.99 this book is hard to pass up so I figured I would add it to m y collection.
This book came wrapped in celephane as a new book would - with a tight binding and inexpensive material for binder cover. The pages at the end of the book did not line up as the same width along the edge where you open the book. It looks like a 100 year old library book where pages could be falling out.
The paper quality for a hardcover book is also below what one would expect. Most of my paperbacks have a better quality more durable paper than this book does.
I guess I'll chalk this up to " You get what you pay for " but If I paid full price for this book - I'd definitely send it back for anohter copy.
I'll try and update the content review of this book later after I read the book. But I'm currently reading another title. - A good book about a weird man!
- Avg. Customer Rating: 4 Stars
- How interesting. Henry Ford was the Bill Gates of his day and changed America forever. But he was kind of a nutcase!
This book gets bogged down occassionally by too much information on his social positions. And he sometimes repeats himself. But all-in-all it was a good read and an eye-opener about one of the men who made the American Century. I would recommend it. - Opinionated and Verbose
- Avg. Customer Rating: 2 Stars
- While the facts are presented in a more or less historical fashion (Watts jumps from one year to the next and then back again with dizzying speed) the author continually and exhaustively repeats himself. He resorts to quoting newspapers of the day (make that ALL of the newspapers of the day) to reinforce his already over-stated and rambling views. In fact, one wonders how much of this book was actually written by the author. Three out of four paragraphs on every page are nothing more than quotes from newspaper articles. The title of the book should be something along the line of, "Henry Ford -- According to the Newspapers -- With a Smattering of Left Wing Collegiate Opinion Thrown-In for Good Measure."
A long-winded, anti-corporate, pro-Marxist-Unionist perspective by a college professor obviously hoping for PBS to turn this voluminous sleeping pill into an equally borish mini-series.
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