Book Review - I Invented the Modern Age-The Rise of Henry Ford

I Invented the Modern Age - The Rise of Henry Ford by Richard Snow  I grew up in a car family.  My father's first job out of college was the culmination of a lifelong dream.  He went to work for Ford Motor Company in the Body Design Department (A document in the family archives seems to indicate that he was the first draftsman trained outside of Ford to be hired in that department).  For a fan of well written biographies and histories of American business icons Richard Snow has written a must read book.  For automotive history and especially Ford fans Snow has written a must own one.

The title comes from a statement made by Ford himself.  It might easily be written off as the expression of a massive ego (and folks like Edison and Tesla might take exception) but there's a very real argument that it is Ford who takes America and the rest of the world into modernity.  By creating a car for every one and then perfecting the manufacturing process to create it cheaply Ford changed the whole structure of our world.  The Model T changes life in both the rural and urban setting.  Without a car for the working man there are no suburbs.  It changes the life of farmers because now their world is no longer contained within the circle of the horizon.  No one else, then or since, can lay claim to have changed society as fundamentally as Ford.

The book is also the story of two different Henry Fords.  Ford the younger who raised the daily wage to $5 much to the outrage of his fellow automakers.  The man who insisted on lowering the price of the car year after year to insure that the most people possible could own one (he eventually sold more than 15 million Model T's alone).  The Ford who chartered a ship and sailed to Europe in an attempt to end World War I.  Ford the elder became a distant, mean spirited man who drove away those closest to him in business and at least tacitly agreed to turning his largest factory into a grim place run by gangs of thugs.  His relationship with his son Edsel is believed by some to have driven the son to an early grave.

In the end Snow walks you through the stages of Ford's growth and fall.  The book is eminently readable and the story will draw you right in.  If there's a complaint to be made the author occasionally drops in a personal comment that seems out of place.  (Snow dislikes the term "flivver" as one of the nicknames for the Model T as an example.  Not sure why I'm supposed to care or would be interested.  That knowledge certainly adds nothing to the otherwise great book)

As I said before if you're an automotive history buff or a Ford Motor Company fan this is probably a 5 star Must Own rating.  For the general audience I think we'll settle at 4 stars.

"I Invented The Modern Age - The Rise of Henry Ford" will be on shelves starting May 14, 2013.

Rating - **** Recommended