The Story of Henry Ford and the Automobile

by Zachary Kent

Book Overview

Biography of the engineer and industrialist whose pioneering company showed the world how to build and mass-produce reliable, inexpensive automobiles. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0516047515
• ISBN13: 9780516047515
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Children's Press(CT)
• Length: 31 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

A good way to present Henry Ford, the most innovative industrialist of the early 20th century

Contrary to a common misconception, Henry Ford did not invent the automobile he invented the cheap automobile. He was the leading industrial innovator of the first quarter of the twentieth century, his assembly line methods made it possible for auto prices to drop to the point where almost everyone could afford them. While his workers had to do repetitive monotonous work, Ford was also an innovator when he raised their salaries to a stratospheric $5 per day. It was an act of sheer genius, not only did it mean that his workers could afford cars, it stimulated similar wage increases in other industries. Of course, those workers then had the money to buy cars. This book is an accurate depiction of one of the greatest innovators of all time. While some inventors prove incapable of managing their business, Ford was different. He built the giant Ford Motor Company from scratch and while changing markets finally caught up with him, it took some time. However, in his later years he lost touch with the reality of the auto market, causing a great deal of grief for his son, Edsel Ford, who was then in control of the company. No industrial history of the early twentieth century is complete without a study of Ford and his methods and this book makes him accessible to the late elementary school child.