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

View From the Phlipside Radio - Cars and Media

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

By now I’m guessing you’ve caught on to the fact that I am seriously into the media.  Maybe even beyond the point that a grown man of advancing years should acknowledge but there it is.  What you may not know is that I am also something of a car guy.  I come by that honestly because my dad was a big time car guy.  His first job out of college was in the design department at Ford, on their honeymoon he took my mother to the Detroit Auto Show and before I was allowed to drive his cars I had to be able to explain how an internal combustion engine worked, identify the major systems of a car and be able to change a tire and the oil.  I grew up in a serious car household.

So imagine my unfettered joy when two of my great passions come together in a single story.  In the last week or two the folks at Ford and the the folks at National Public Radio have announced a partnership that will put a special app in new Fords that will give you direct access to programming from NPR.  That story in and of itself is no big deal even if you’re an NPR fan as I am.  

What got me about the story is the ever increasing amount of media that is now available in cars.  And it begins to worry me.  The worst idea, putting a video screen in the middle of the steering wheel, seems to have died off.  Which is wonderful from my point of view.  Even so you’re seeing more and more screens in cars.  The Tesla electric sports car boasts a 17 inch screen that basically takes over all the functions of the dashboard.  At the other end of the cost scale the brand new Dodge Dart has a screen for dashboard functions plus a second one for things like climate control and sound system.

But what really worries me is the advent of voice control for media in cars.  All of this MIGHT be a distraction if you let it but what happens when people from anywhere in the car can start affecting distraction inspiring stuff inside the car?  In my lifetime car radios were options.  Now we have music, phone, video, web access, and most of them can be fired up by a three year old in the back seat.

Somewhere along the line we need to remember that we are in a vehicle that weighs around a ton or more at speeds that can be well in excess of a mile a minute.  We drive them in situations that require great concentration.

Forgetting that, even for a second, can get you in a lot of trouble.  Something else my father taught me.


Call that the View From the Phlipside