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| '''Henry Ford''' ([[July 30]], [[1863]] – [[April 7]], [[1947]]) was the founder of the [[Ford Motor Company]] and father of modern [[assembly line]]s used in [[mass production]]. His introduction in 1910 of the [[Model T]] automobile revolutionized transportation and, indeed, American industry. As sole owner of the Ford Company he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "[[Fordism]]", that is, the mass production of large numbers of inexpensive automobiles using the assembly line which would finish a car in 98 minutes, coupled with high wages for his workers—notably the $5.00 a day pay scale adopted in 1914. Ford, though poorly educated, had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put a dealership in every city in North America, and in major cities on six continents. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the [[Ford Foundation]], but arranged for his family to control the company permanently. | | {{subpages}} |
| | {{Image|Henry ford portrait.jpg|right|250px|Henry Ford.}} |
| | '''Henry Ford''' (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was a US [[automobile]] engineer and businessman who founded the [[Ford Motor Company]] and introduced modern [[mass production]] using the [[moving assembly line]]. Having experimented with [[gasoline]]-powered automobiles for a dozen years, he came to understand the need for a widely affordable and rugged automobile to suit the US market. The 1908 [[Model T]] Ford fit this need, and sales escalated. To facilitate more efficient production, managers at Ford Motor Company innovated the moving assembly line method of mass production and paid high wages to workers, which became known as "[[Fordism]]." An antagonist of big finance and monopolies, Ford earned the respect of common folk throughout the US, who flocked to buy his cars. His hatred of corporate control and high finance led him to turn the Ford Motor Company into a [[sole proprietorship]], an anomaly in the era of modern large-scale business enterprise. He also made Ford Motor Company a [[Vertical integration|vertically integrated company]]. |
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| ==Early years==
| | Throughout his life, Ford was active in many side affairs such as international peace, historic preservation, tractor and aircraft manufacture, politics, chemical research, race relations, housing construction, railroads, shipping, and publishing. He was vehemently opposed to outside interference in his business affairs whether it came from bondholders, minority stockholders, labor unions, or the US government. As such he violently opposed the organization of the [[United Auto Workers]] and refused to participate in [[New Deal]] economic recovery programs such as the [[National Recovery Administration]]. |
| [[Image:Henry Ford 1888.jpg|frame|right|150px|Henry Ford, 1888]]
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| Ford was born on July 30, 1863 on a farm next to a rural town west of Detroit, Michigan. His father William Ford (1826-1905) was born in County Cork, Ireland. His mother Mary Litogot Ford (1839-1876) was born in Michigan, she was the youngest child of Belgian immigrants, her parents died when Mary was a child and she was adopted by neighbours, the O'Herns. Henry Ford's siblings include: Margaret Ford (1867-1868); Jane Ford (c1868-1945); William Ford (1871-1917) and Robert Ford (1873-1934). | |
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| Henry took this passion about mechanics into his home. His father had given him a pocket watch in his early teens. At fifteen, he had a reputation as a watch repairman, having dismantled and reassembled timepieces of friends and neighbors dozens of times.<ref>Ford, ''My Life and Work'', 22-24; Nevins and Hill, ''Ford TMC'', 58.</ref>
| | In later life, Ford suffered at least two strokes and was incapacitated from about 1941. His son, [[Edsel B. Ford]] nominally headed the company as president from 1918 until his death in 1943, but was routinely undermined by his father as CEO. Ford passed management of the company to his grandson [[Henry Ford II]] in 1945. He died in 1947 leaving nearly all of his wealth to the [[Ford Foundation]]. |
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| His mother died in 1876, which came was a blow that devastated young Henry. His father expected Henry to eventually take over the family farm, but Henry despised farm work. With his mother dead, little remained to keep him on the farm. He later said, "I never had any particular love for the farm - it was the mother on the farm I loved."<ref>Ford, ''My Life and Work'', 24. </ref>
| | ==Early years== |
| | | Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, in Dearborn, Michigan, the oldest of five children. His parents were William Ford and Mary Litogot. William Ford was an immigrant from County Cork, Ireland, and Mary Litogot was a first generation American of Belgian immigrant parents. Ford attended school in a one-room school house and often sat next to Edsel Ruddiman (for whom Ford would later name his only son). Ford was educated in rote memorization from [[McGuffy Readers]] which was a standard pedagogy of the day. |
| In 1879, he left home for the nearby city of Detroit, Michigan, to work as an apprentice machinist. In 1882, he returned to Dearborn to work on the family farm and became adept at operating the Westinghouse portable steam engine. This led to his being hired by Westinghouse to service their steam engines.
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| Upon his marriage to Clara Ala Bryant in 1888, Ford supported himself by farming and running a sawmill. They had a single child: [[Edsel Bryant Ford]] (1893-1943).
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| In 1891, Ford became an engineer with the [[Edison Illuminating Company]], and 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 his own self-propelled vehicle named the Quadricycle, which he test-drove on June 4 of that year. After various test-drives, Henry Ford brainstormed ways to improve the Quadricycle.<ref> See [http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1896/quad.html] </ref>
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| == Ford Motor Company ==
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| Ford, with 11 other investors and $28,000 in capital, incorporated the [[Ford Motor Company]] in 1903. In a newly-designed car, Ford drove an exhibition in which the car covered the distance of a mile on the ice of Lake St. Clair in 39.4 seconds (91.3 MPH), which was a new [[land speed record]]. Convinced by this success, the famous race driver [[Barney Oldfield]], who named this new Ford model "999" in honor of a racing locomotive of the day, took the car around the country and thereby made the Ford brand known throughout the United States. Ford was also one of the early backers of the [[Indianapolis 500]].
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| Ford astonished the world in 1914 by offering a $5 a day wage that more than doubled the rate of most of his workers. The move proved extremely profitable. Instead of constant turnover of employees, the best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford, bringing in their human capital and expertise, raising productivity, and lowering training costs. Ford called it "wage motive." The company's use of [[vertical integration]] also proved successful, as Ford built a gigantic factory that shipped in raw materials and shipped out finished automobiles.
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| === The Model T === | |
| The [[Model T]] was introduced on October 1, 1908. It had many important innovations—such as the steering wheel on the left, which every other company soon copied. The entire engine and transmission were enclosed; the 4 cylinders were cast in a solid block; the suspension used two semi-elliptic springs. The car was very simple to drive, and—more important—easy and cheap to repair. It was so cheap at $825 in 1908 (the price fell every year) that by the 1920s a majority of American drivers learned to drive on the Model T, leaving fond memories for millions. Ford created a massive 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 virtually every city in North America. As independent dealers the franchises grew rich and publicized not just the Ford but the very concept of automobiling; local motor clubs sprang up to help new drivers and to explore 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. Sales passed 250,000 in 1914. Although Henry 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.H. Wills. (See [[Piquette Plant]]) By 1916, as the price dropped to $360 for the basic touring car, sales reached 472,000.<ref>Lewis 1976, pp 41-59</ref>
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| [[Image:Ford assembly line - 1913.jpg|thumb|150px|Ford Assembly Line, 1913]]
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| By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model T's. As Ford wrote in his autobiography, "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black".<ref> [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/hnfrd10.txt Ford, ''My Life and Work''], Chapter IV</ref> Until the development of the assembly line which mandated black because of its quicker drying time, Model T's were available in other colors including red. The design was fervently promoted and defended by Henry Ford, and production continued as late as 1927; the final total production was 15,007,034. This was a record which stood for the next 45 years.
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| In 1918 President [[Woodrow Wilson]] personally asked Ford to run for the Senate from Michigan as a Democrat. Although the nation was at war Ford ran as a peace candidate and a strong supporter of the proposed [[League of Nations]].<ref> Watts, pp 243-48</ref> In December 1918 Henry Ford turned the presidency of Ford Motor Company over to his son [[Edsel Ford]]. Henry, however, retained final decision authority and sometimes reversed his son. Henry and Edsel purchased all remaining stock from other investors, thus giving the family sole ownership of the company.
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| 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 steadfastly refused to incorporate new features into the Model T or to form a customer credit plan.
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| === The "Model A" and Ford's Later Career===
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| By 1926, flagging sales of the Model T finally convinced Henry to make a new model car. Henry 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. The result was the successful [[Ford Model A]], introduced in December, 1927 and produced through 1931, with a total output of over four million automobiles. Subsequently, the company adopted an annual model change system similar to that in use by automakers today. Not until the 1930s did Ford overcome his objection to finance companies, and the Ford-owned [[Universal Credit Company]] became a major car financing operation.
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| [[Image:Timehenryford.jpg|thumb|200px|''[[TIME|Time]] Magazine'', [[January 14]], [[1935]]]]
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| ===Death of Edsel Ford===
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| In May 1943, Edsel Ford died, leaving a vacancy in the company presidency. Henry Ford advocated his long-time associate [[Harry Bennett]] to take the spot. Edsel's widow Eleanor, who had inherited Edsel's voting stock, wanted her son [[Henry Ford II]] to take over the position. The issue was settled for a period when Henry himself, at age 79, took over the presidency personally. Henry Ford II was released from the Navy and became an executive vice president, while Harry Bennett had a seat on the board and was responsible for personnel, labor relations, and public relations.[[Image:Ford,_Edison,_Firestone,_Hoover.jpg |thumb|right|250px|L-R: President [[Herbert Hoover]], Henry Ford, [[Thomas Edison]] and [[Harvey Firestone]] at Edison's 82nd birthday in [[Ft. Myers, Florida]] on [[February 11]], [[1929]].]]
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| === Ford's labor philosophy ===
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| Henry 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 a year to fill 100 slots. Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best workers. On [[January 5]], [[1914]], Ford announced his five-dollar a day program. The revolutionary program called for a reduction in length of the workday from 9 to 8 hours, a 5 day work week, and a raise in minimum daily pay from $2.34 to $5 for qualifying workers.<ref>Samuel Crowther [http://www.worklessparty.org/timework/ford.htm HENRY FORD: Why I Favor Five Days' Work With Six Days' Pay] World's Work, October 1926 pp. 613-616</ref>
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| Ford had been criticized by Wall Street for starting the 40 hour work week and a minimum wage. He proved, however, that paying people more would enable Ford workers to afford the cars they were producing, and therefore be good for the economy. Ford labeled the increased compensation as profit-sharing rather than wages. The wage was offered to men over age 22, who had worked at the company for 6 months or more, and, importantly, conducted their lives in a manner of which Ford's "Sociological Department" approved. They frowned on heavy drinking and gambling. The Sociological Department used 150 investigators and support staff to maintain employee standards; a large percentage of workers were able to qualify for the profit-sharing.
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| Ford was adamantly against [[trade union|labor unions]] in his plants. To forestall union activity, he promoted [[Harry Bennett]], a former Navy boxer, to be the head of the Service Department. Bennett employed various intimidation tactics to squash union organizing. The most famous incident, in 1937, was a bloody brawl between company security men and organizers that became known as [[The Battle of the Overpass]].
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| Ford 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]]. Under pressure from Edsel and his wife, Clara, Henry Ford finally agreed to collective bargaining at Ford plants, and the first contract with the UAW was signed in June 1941. | |
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| ==Ford Airplane Company==
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| 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 Henry Ford acquired the Stout Metal Airplane Company.
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| [[Image:Ford 4ATF.jpg|thumb|200 px|Ford 4-AT-F (EC-RRA) de L.A.P.E.]]
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| Ford's most successful aircraft was the [[Ford trimotor|Ford 4AT Trimotor]]—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. About 200 Trimotors were built before it was discontinued in 1933, when the Ford Airplane Division shut down because of poor sales due to the Depression.
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| ==Peace Ship==
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| In 1915, Jewish pacifist [[Rosika Schwimmer]] had gained the favor of Henry Ford who agreed to fund a peace ship to Europe, where World War I was raging, for himself and about 170 other prominent peace leaders. He talked to President Wilson about the trip but had no government support. His group went to neutral Sweden and the Netherlands to meet with peace activists there. Ford, the target of much ridicule, left the ship as soon as it reached Sweden.
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| An article [[G. K. Chesterton]] wrote for the December 12, 1916 issue of ''Illustrated London News,'' shows why Ford's effort was ridiculed. Referring to Ford as "the celebrated American comedian," Chesterton noted that Ford had been quoted claiming, "I believe that the sinking of the ''[[RMS Lusitania|Lusitania]]'' was deliberately planned to get this country [[United States|America]] into war. It was planned by the financiers of war." Chesterton expressed "difficulty in believing that bankers swim under the sea to cut holes in the bottoms of ships," and asked why, if what Ford said was true, Germany took responsibility for the sinking and "defended what it did not do." Mr Ford's efforts, he concluded, "queer the pitch" of "more plausible and presentable" pacifists.
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| ==Dearborn Independent==
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| [[Image:1920 International Jew reprint from Dearborn Independent.jpg|thumb|''[[The International Jew]], the World's Foremost Problem''. Articles from ''[[The Dearborn Independent]]'', 1920]]
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| In 1918, Ford's closest aide and private secretary, Ernest G. Liebold, purchased an obscure weekly newspaper, ''[[The Dearborn Independent]]''. By 1920, Ford had become publicly [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] and in March of that year, began an anti-Jewish crusade in the pages of his newspaper.<ref>Slater, Elinor and Slater, Robert (1999). ''Great Moments in Jewish History''. Jonathan David Company, Inc., ISBN 0-8246-0408-3, p. 190.</ref> The ''Independent'' ran for eight years, from 1920 until 1927, during which Liebold was editor. The newspaper published "[[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion|Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion]]," which was discredited as a forgery during the ''Independent'''s publishing run by [[The Times]] of London. The [[American Jewish Historical Society]] describes 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".
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| Along with the ''Protocols'', anti-Jewish articles published by ''The Dearborn Independent'' were also released in the early 1920s as a set of four bound volumes, cumulatively titled ''[[The International Jew]], the World's Foremost Problem''. Vincent Curcio writes of these publications that "they were widely distributed and had great influence, particularly in Nazi Germany, where no less a personage than [[Adolf Hitler]] read and admired them. Hitler, fascinated with automobiles, hung Ford's picture on the wall; Ford is the only American mentioned in Hitler's book. Steven Watts writes 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."<ref>Watts page xi.</ref>
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| Denounced by the [[Anti-Defamation League]] (ADL), the articles nevertheless explicitly condemned [[Pogram|pogroms]] and violence against Jews (Volume 4, Chapter 80), preferring to blame incidents of mass violence on the Jews themselves.<ref>Ford, Henry (2003). ''The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem''. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-7829-3, p. 61.</ref> None of this work was actually written by Ford, who wrote almost nothing, and apparently could barely read beyond the fifth grade level.<ref> Asked at the trial to read an editorial Ford refused; he said he only read headlines. He demanded that all business reports be made to him orally at briefings; he never read the accompanying studies.<ref> Friends and business associates say they warned Ford about the contents of the ''Independent'', and that Ford probably never read them. <ref> Watts pp x, 376-387; Lewis (1976) pp 135-59.</ref> However, court testimony in a libel suit, brought by one of the targets of the newspaper, stated that Ford did indeed know about the contents of the ''Independent'' in advance of publication.<ref>Wallace, p. 30.</ref>
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| A libel lawsuit brought by San Francisco lawyer and Jewish farm cooperative organizer [[Aaron Sapiro]] in response to anti-Semitic remarks led Ford to close the ''Independent'' in December 1927. During the trial, the editor of Ford's "Own Page", William Cameron, testified that Ford never wrote or dictated 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.<ref>Lewis, (1976) pp. 140-156; Baldwin p 220-221.</ref> Everyone agreed, however, that Ford had a general knowledge of the antisemitic thrust and funded their publication.
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| :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 antisemitic 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.<ref>Spencer Blakeslee, ''The Death of American Antisemitism''. (2000) p. 83.</ref>
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| In July 1938, prior to 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, in recognition of his automotive achievements; James D. Mooney, vice-president of overseas operations for General Motors, received a similar medal, .<ref> [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged Nazi Collaboration], ''Washington Post'', November 30, 1998; David R. Farber, ''Sloan Rules: Alfred P. Sloan and the Triumph of General Motors'' (2002). p. 228.</ref>
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| Distribution of ''International Jew'' was halted in 1942, but extremist groups often recycle the material; it still appears on [[antisemitic]] and [[neo-Nazi]] websites.
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| == Ford's international business==
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| Ford's philosophy was one of economic independence for the United States. His [[River Rouge Plant]] would become the world's largest industrial complex, even able to 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 used the assembly line process and production of the Model T to demonstrate it<ref>Watts 236-40</ref> 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 [[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.<ref>Wilkins</ref> 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 the few failures. In 1929, Ford accepted [[Stalin]]'s invitation to build a model plant (NNAZ, today [[GAZ]]) at Gorky, a city later renamed [[Nizhny Novgorod]], and he sent American engineers and technicians to help set it up, including future labor leader [[Walter Reuther]]. [[Image:Fordslindbergh.jpg|right|frame|[[Edsel Ford]], [[Charles Lindbergh]], and Henry Ford pose in the Ford hangar during Lindbergh's August 1927 visit.]]
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| The technical assistance agreement between Ford Motor Company, VSNH and the Soviet-controlled American Trading Organization (AMTORG) [http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/kgb/deep/kgb_deep_ref_detail.htm] (as purchasing agent) was concluded for nine years and signed on [[May 31]], [[1929]], by Ford, FMC vice-president [[Peter E. Martin]], V. I. Mezhlauk, and the president of Amtorg, Saul G. Bron. The Ford Motor Company worked to conduct business in any nation where the United States had peaceful diplomatic relations:
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| * Ford of Australia
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| * [[Ford of Britain]]
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| * Ford of Argentina
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| * Ford of Brazil
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| * Ford of Canada
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| * Ford of Europe
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| * [http://www.india.ford.com/ Ford India]
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| * [http://www.ford.co.za/ Ford South Africa]
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| * [http://www.ford.com.mx/ Ford Mexico]
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| * [[Autolatina]]
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| * [[Mazda]]
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| * [[Volvo Cars]] since 1999
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| * [[Jaguar (car)|Jaguar]] since 1990
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| By 1932, Ford was manufacturing one third of all the world’s automobiles.
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| Ford's image transfixed Europeans, especially the Germans, arousing the "fear of some, the infatuation of others, and the fascination among all".<ref>Nolan p 31</ref> 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"<ref>Nolan, p 31</ref> For many Germans, Henry Ford himself embodied the essence of successful Americanism.
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| ==Racing==
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| Ford began his career as a race car driver and maintained his interest in the sport from 1901 to 1913. Ford entered stripped-down Model Ts in races, finishing first (although later disqualified) in an "ocean-to-ocean" (across the United States) race in 1909, and setting a one-mile 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 and the demands on his time by the now-booming production of the Model Ts.
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| He was inducted in the [[Motorsports Hall of Fame of America]] in 1996.
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| == Death ==
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| Ford suffered an initial heart attack in 1938, after which he turned over the running of his company to Edsel. Edsel's 1943 death brought Henry Ford out of retirement. In ill health, he 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 the age of 83 in Fair Lane, his Dearborn estate, and is buried in the Ford Cemetery in Detroit.
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| ==Sidelights==
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| Henry Ford long had an interest in plastics developed from agricultural products, especially soybeans. He cultivated a relationship with [[George Washington Carver]] for this purpose. 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. [Lewis 1995]
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| Ford was instrumental in developing charcoal briquets, under the brand name "[[Kingsford charcoal briquets|Kingsford]]". Along with his brother in law, [[E.G. Kingsford]] used wood scraps from the Ford factory to make the briquets, adding backyard grilling as a pastime. | |
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| Ford had a strong interest in collecting "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 historical Wayside Inn. This initial plan turned into Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. 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 and, although greatly modernized, remains open today.
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| Henry Ford is sometimes credited with the invention of the automobile, generally attributed to [[Karl Benz]], and the assembly line, invented by [[Ransom E. Olds]]. Ford's employees did develop the first moving assembly line based on conveyor belts.
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| Ford was the winner of the award of [[Car Entrepreneur of the Century]] in 1999.
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| Henry Ford was especially fond of Thomas Edison, and, on Edison's deathbed, he demanded Edison's son catch his final breath in a test tube. The test tube can still be found today in [[Henry Ford Museum]].[http://corpse.org/issue_1/palmer.html]
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| == Ford in culture ==
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| * In Aldous Huxley's ''Brave New World'', society is organized on 'Fordist' lines and the years are dated A.F. (After Ford). In the book, the expression 'My Ford' is used instead of 'My Lord'. Even human beings were produced via an assembly line in large glass jars and in five models: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. As homage to the assembly line philosophy that so defined the mass-culture society of ''Brave New World'' native individuals make the "sign of the T" instead of the "sign of the cross."
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| The Peace Ship was recently fictionalized by the British novelist Douglas Galbraith in his novel ''King Henry''.<ref>http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780436206283</ref>
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| ==Bibliography==
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| ===Biographies===
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| * Bak, Richard. ''Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire'' (2003)
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| * Brinkley, Douglas G. ''Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress'' (2003)
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| * Halberstam, David. "Citizen Ford" ''American Heritage'' 1986 37(6): 49-64. interpretive essay
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| * Jardim, Anne. ''The First Henry Ford: A Study in Personality and Business Leadership'' Massachusetts Inst. of Technology Press 1970.
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| * Lacey, Robert. ''Ford: The Men and the Machine'' Little, Brown, 1986. popular biography
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| * Lewis, David I. ''The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and His Company'' Wayne State U Press (1976),
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| * {{Cite book | first= Allan | last=Nevins | coauthors= Frank Ernest Hill | authorlink=Allan Nevins | title =Ford: The Times, The Man, The Company | publisher=Charles Scribners' Sons | location = New York | year = 1954}}
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| * {{Cite book | first= Allan | last=Nevins |coauthors= Frank Ernest Hill | title=Ford: Expansion and Challenge, 1915-1933 | publisher=Charles Scribners' Sons | location = New York | year = 1957 | authorlink=Allan Nevins}}
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| * {{Cite book | first= Allan | last=Nevins |coauthors= Frank Ernest Hill | title=Ford: Decline and Rebirth, 1933-1962 | publisher=Charles Scribners' Sons | location = New York | year = 1962 | authorlink=Allan Nevins}}
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| * Nye, David E. ''Henry Ford: "Ignorant Idealist."'' Kennikat, 1979.
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| * Watts, Steven. '' The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century'' (2005)
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| ===Specialized studies===
| | During the summer of 1873, Henry saw his first self-propelled road machine, a Nichols, Shepard & Co., stationary steam engine that could be used for threshing or to power a saw mill. The operator, Fred Reden, had mounted it on wheels connected with a drive chain. Henry was fascinated with the machine and Reden over the next year taught Henry how to fire and operate the engine. Ford later said, it was this experience "that showed me that I was by instinct an engineer."<ref>Ford, ''My Life and Work'', 22; Nevins and Hill, ''Ford: The Times, the Man, the Company (TMC)'', 54-55.</ref> |
| * Batchelor, Ray. ''Henry Ford: Mass Production, Modernism and Design'' Manchester U. Press, 1994.
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| * Bonin, Huber et al. ''Ford, 1902-2003: The European History'' 2 vol Paris 2003. ISBN 2-914369-06-9 scholarly essays in English; reviewed in * Holden, Len. "Fording the Atlantic: Ford and Fordism in Europe" in ''Business History '' Volume 47, #1 Jan 2005 pp 122-127
| | Henry took this passion about mechanics into his home. His father had given him a pocket watch in his early teens and he began tinkering with it. By fifteen, he had a reputation as a watch repairman, having dismantled and reassembled timepieces of friends and neighbors dozens of times.<ref>Ford, ''My Life and Work'', 22-24; Nevins and Hill, ''Ford TMC'', 58.</ref> |
| * Brinkley, Douglas. "Prime Mover". ''American Heritage'' 2003 54(3): 44-53. on Model T
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| * 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.
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| * Dempsey, Mary A. "Fordlandia," ''Michigan History'' 1994 78(4): 24-33. Ford's rubber plantation in Brazil
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| * 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
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| * Kraft, Barbara S. ''The Peace Ship: Henry Ford's Pacifist Adventure in the First World War'' Macmillan, 1978
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| * Levinson, William A. ''Henry Ford's Lean Vision: Enduring Principles from the First Ford Motor Plant'', 2002; ISBN 1-56327-260-1
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| * Lewis, David L. "Ford and Kahn" ''Michigan History'' 1980 64(5): 17-28. Ford commissioned architect Albert Kahn to design factories
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| * Lewis, David L. "Henry Ford and His Magic Beanstalk" . ''Michigan History'' 1995 79(3): 10-17. Ford's interest in soybeans and plastics
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| * Lewis, David L. "Working Side by Side" ''Michigan History'' 1993 77(1): 24-30. Why Ford hired large numbers of black workers
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| * 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
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| * Meyer, Stephen. ''The Five Dollar Day: Labor Management and Social Control in the Ford Motor Company, 1908-1921'' (1981)
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| * Nolan; Mary. ''Visions of Modernity: American Business and the Modernization of Germany'' (1994)
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| * {{cite journal | author=Daniel M. G. Raff and Lawrence H. Summers | title=Did Henry Ford Pay Efficiency Wages? | journal=Journal of Labor Economics | year=October 1987 | volume=5 | issue=4 | pages=S57-S86}}
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| * Pietrykowski, Bruce. "Fordism at Ford: Spatial Decentralization and Labor Segmentation at the Ford Motor Company, 1920-1950" ''Economic Geography'' 1995 71(4): 383-401.
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| * 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
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| * 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.
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| * 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,
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| * 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
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| * Wilkins, Mira and Frank Ernest Hill, ''American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents'' Wayne State University Press, 1964
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| * 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
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| ===Further reading ===
| | His mother died in 1876, which devastated Henry. His father expected Henry to eventually take over the family farm, but Henry despised farm work. With his mother dead, little remained to keep him on the farm. He later said, "I never had any particular love for the farm. It was the mother on the farm I loved."<ref>Ford, ''My Life and Work'', 24; Edward A. Guest, "Henry Ford Talks About His Mother," ''American Magazine'', July 1923, 11-15, 116-120.</ref> |
| * Baldwin, Neil; ''Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate''; PublicAffairs, 2000; ISBN 1-58648-163-0
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| * Foust, James C. "Mass-produced Reform: Henry Ford's Dearborn Independent" ''American Journalism'' 1997 14(3-4): 411-424.
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| * Higham, Charles, ''Trading With The Enemy'' The Nazi - American Money Plot 1933-1949 ; Delacorte Press 1983
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| * Kandel, Alan D. "Ford and Israel" ''Michigan Jewish History'' 1999 39: 13-17. covers business and philanthropy
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| * Lee, Albert; ''Henry Ford and the Jews''; Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1980; ISBN 0-8128-2701-5
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| * Lewis, David L. "Henry Ford's Anti-semitism and its Repercussions" ''Michigan Jewish History'' 1984 24(1): 3-10.
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| * Reich, Simon (1999) "The Ford Motor Company and the Third Reich" ''Dimensions'', 13(2): 15 - 17 [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/ford.html online]
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| * Ribuffo, Leo P. "Henry Ford and the International Jew" ''American Jewish History'' 1980 69(4): 437-477.
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| * Sapiro, Aaron L. "A Retrospective View of the Aaron Sapiro-Henry Ford Case" ''Western States Jewish Historical Quarterly'' 1982 15(1): 79-84.
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| * Silverstein, K. (2000) "Ford and the Fuhrer" ''The Nation'' 270(3): 11 - 16
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| * Wallace, Max ''The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third Reich''; ISBN 0-312-33531-8
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| * Woeste, Victoria Saker. "Insecure Equality: Louis Marshall, Henry Ford, and the Problem of Defamatory Antisemitism, 1920-1929" ''Journal of American History'' 2004 91(3): 877-905.
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| ===Primary sources===
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| * Ford, Henry and Crowther, Samuel; ''[http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/7213 My Life and Work]'', 1922
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| * Ford, Henry and Crowther, Samuel; ''Today and Tomorrow'', 1926
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| * Ford, Henry and Crowther, Samuel; ''Moving Forward'', 1930
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| * Bennett, Harry, as told to Paul Marcus. ''Ford: We Never Called Him Henry'', 1951
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| * Sorensen, Charles E., with Samuel T. Williamson. ''My Forty Years with Ford'', 1956; ISBN 0-915299-36-4
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| ==External links==
| | Following this inclination to avoid farm work and pursue mechanics, Ford left the farm in 1879. He was apprenticed as a machinist it the [[Michigan Car Company]] one of Detroit's largest machine shops. In 1882, he returned to work his father's farm in Dearborn. During this time he purchased and operated a portable [[Westinghouse]] steam engine. The Westinghouse Company hired him as a local mechanic. |
| * [http://automotivehistoryonline.com/ford.htm Automobile History Online - Henry Ford History & Photos]
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| * Full text of ''[http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/7213 My Life and Work]'' from [[Project Gutenberg]]
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| * [http://www.quotationsbook.com/authors/2560/Henry_Ford Notable quotations and speech excerpts]
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| * [http://www.myviplife.com/lifestories/vipbusiness/Henry_Ford_wa.php?c=3 Timeline][http://www.myviplife.com/lifestories/vipbusiness/Henry_Ford_ch.php?c=3 and Quotes by Henry Ford]
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| * [http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1958/2/1958_2_65.shtml Nevins and Hill tell story of Peace Ship in ''American Heritage'']
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| * [http://www.kuhistory.com/proto/story.asp?id=42 College student reports on the 1915 Peace Ship expedition]
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| * [http://www.hfha.org/ The Henry Ford Heritage Association]
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| * [http://www.henryfordestate.org/fordfamily.html#top Henry Ford's Fair Lane Estate]
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| * [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/llt/51/pauwels.html American Corporate Support for Nazis]
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| * [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm The Washington Post reports on Ford and General Motors response to alleged collaboration with Nazi Germany]
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| * [http://www.identityindependence.com/fordlindbergh.html Recent criticism of Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh as part of a struggle to define American identity]
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| * [http://history.hanover.edu/hhr/99/hhr99_2.html Power, Ignorance, and Anti-Semitism: Henry Ford and His War on Jews] by Jonathan R. Logsdon, Hanover Historical Review 1999
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| * [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_03/b3766025.htm Review of] "Henry Ford and The Jews" by Neil Baldwin
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| * [http://thoughtaudio.com/titlelist/ford/index.html Listen to “The Terror of the Machine” by Henry Ford] Free mp3 audio download from [http://thoughtaudio.com/ ThoughtAudio.com]
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| | ==References== |
| <references/>
| | {{reflist}}[[Category:Suggestion Bot Tag]] |
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| [[Category:History Workgroup]]
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| [[Category:Economics Workgroup]]
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| [[Category:CZ Live]] | |
