Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire

Book Description

The epic struggle between a father and son and the building of a worldwide business empire
In this retelling of the story of the rise of Ford Motors, journalist Richard Bak offers a daring new perspective on the human drama that helped shape one of the world's great business empires. No dry corporate history, Henry and Edsel focuses on the epic battle of wills between the unyielding Henry Ford, his gifted son Edsel, and his "second son," the brutal and insidious Harry Bennet who rose from barroom brawler to become Henry's heir apparent. Bak dispels the common misperception of Edsel Ford as a weak and ineffectual manager, and explains that it was in fact Edsel's level-headedness and imaginative business solutions and that allowed the company to survive the many challenges to its survival in the first half of the twentieth century. Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary celebration of Ford Motor Company, Henry and Edsel is sure to be warmly received by history buffs and business readers.
Richard Bak (Detroit, MI) is a veteran journalist who has written widely on the Fords and the automobile industry.

Customer Reviews:

A Good Read!.......2004-04-30

Richard Bak is a long-time resident of Detroit and Dearborn, Michigan, and doubtless absorbed much of the Ford legacy simply by growing up in a place that Ford formed. This book is not exactly a corporate history, not exactly a biography and not exactly a tell-all celebrity book, but it has elements of each. The most interesting pieces include the extended reminiscences by people who lived and worked closely with the Fords, and especially with Edsel's family. He has long lingered in the shadow of his famous father and it is somewhat surprising to discover that he had some fine qualities. These reminiscences have poignant moments that establish the veracity of any number of proverbs on money, happiness and the foibles of the great. The book is reasonably well written and fairly concise. It recapitulates the essentials of the Ford story, though it glances over the evolution of management and organization at the company. We assure you that you'll get the full Ford saga here, though you may have to extrapolate the business lessons it teaches for yourself.

A Good Read!.......2004-03-09

Well documented........2003-10-10

HENRY AND EDSEL offers insight into the characters of Henry and Edsel Ford and what it was that compelled them. The book presents a strong sense of time and the Fords' presence in and contribution to the events around them. The book is filled with interesting anecdotes. The best part for me were the several chapters called "rearview mirror" -- accounts written by eyewitnesses who recorded their version of important events: Edsel's death, the riots, etc. The author also introduced us to some of the hard workers and bright people Henry surrounded himself with in order to get to the top. One person CAN change the world -- but almost never alone.

Henry and Edsel The Creation of the Ford Empire

Average customer rating:

Henry and Edsel The Creation of the Ford Empire
Bak Richard
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UEH806

Book Description

When Casey Stengel was named the manager of the Yankees in 1949, baseball wags were stunned. What had Stengel ever done? His work managing the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves had been long on personality and remarkably short on success. They thought the Yankees would never be able to compete with the Red Sox or Indians with that broken-down old man in charge. At the All-Star break, the Yankees looked like a banged-up bunch of also-rans, not like a team about to embark on five straight championships. Yet Stengel seemed confident of success. As Steven Goldman explains, people had forgotten that Casey knew how to come back.

How did he know? Goldman refutes claims that anyone could have won with the Yankees. Casey knew how to win because of the years of struggle and ignominy, because he’d learned how to manage by running two of the game’s worst sad-sack franchises, because he had learned through failure. To understand Stengel’s formative years, Goldman retraces Stengel’s baseball education in playing for the great John McGraw, from whom he also learned that success permits no room for nostalgia. Goldman follows Stengel through his years with the Dodgers and Braves, his return to the minors, a spat with Bill Veeck, and his success as a businessman away from the diamond.

Forging Genius gives insights to Stengel’s irrepressible love of the game and his incorrigible desire to entertain. As Casey put it, “Because I can make people laugh, some of them think I’m a damn fool.” His humor camouflaged a relentless hunger for success, glory, and the respectability he desperately sought. Goldman gives readers an unprecedented vision of one man’s lifelong pursuit of genius on the baseball diamond.

Customer Reviews:

WHO ALLOWED THIS TYPE FACE???.......2007-08-24

Good story, set in unreadable sans serif type...terribly proofread...execrable letting.....
this guy writes a good column for the NY Sun, but if he ever does another book,
he has got to pay attention to the fonts....or else he will be sued for
blinding his readers....
Look at the LIbrary of America...the easiest type to read....

The Best Sports Writing of the Year!!! .......2005-09-20

I usually read only fiction as I find non-fiction and biography to be on the heavy side; however, my husband forced me to read this book after he thought it was one of the best books he ever read, saying, "if you enjoyed Seabiscuit, then you'll love this, because it's ten times better." I can honestly say that while it's not ten times better than Seabiscuit, it is definitely on the same level.

Goldman does an amazing job showing how Stengel was really an intelligent man, displaying an American wit, typical of one from the Midwest and the great Mark Twain. After reading "Forging Genius" I discovered that Stengel was an incredibly funny guy with tremendous observational powers. It was truly a compelling and fluid story and I was surprised at how talented this first-time author is.

Forging Genius was meticulously researched, and what really shines through was how much the author enjoyed researching and writing about this colorful personality. It may make Goldman's story a tad biased on the positive side, but in today's cynical society, it was refreshing to see just a touch of hero-worship in a book about a man long considered to be a buffoon in baseball circles. Goldman proves that Stengel was ahead of his time and a genius to boot!

DON'T PASS THIS ONE UP!!!

Boring.......2005-07-12

Goldman takes one of baseball's most entertaining characters and somehow manages to present us a story as lifeless as a pine tar rag. There is no organizing theme to this narrative. Although the chapters are presented chronologically (playing career, managing in Brooklyn, then Boston), the anectodes skip around in an unorganized way -- making it hard to keep track of what is happening when, or why we should care.

Here's what's interesting:
- Casey Stengel played for John McGraw, and they had a close relationship that amounted to McGraw willingly tutoring and nuturing Stengel's active mind. McGraw was an important mentor to Stengel, as a faculty advisor is an important mentor to a graduate student. (McGraw's influence among 20th century managers has been well documented by Bill James).
- Casey was instrumental in shaping Billy Martin's playing career, both with the Oaks in the PCL and with the Yankees. But there are important differences between Stengel and Martin's approach to managing (although this is never discussed).
- Casey managed some incrediblly bad teams (Boston Braves, NY Mets) and some incrediblly good ones. And he liked to platoon players, use his bench, and valued multi-positional players that increased his decision-making flexibility. On his best teams was able to rely on a few switch-hitters or star hitters that allowed him to save his platoon match-ups for players with reserve or part-time roles. However, this rarely (if ever) was extended to pitchers, whom he constantly moved in and out of different roles regardless of their talent level.

What we don't read about in this book is how managers that came after Stengel also employed these kinds of techniques. Whitey Herzog (for example) valued multi-positional players. Earl Weaver built active benches with situational hitters around a few switch-hitting or star regulars (as did Herzog) and used complez defensive and offensive platoons.

There is a good anecdote or two in the text, but this is not the best source for reader's looking for funny Stengel stories. At worst, this book merely reinforces the idea that baseball players are little more than Strat-o-matic cards to be shuffled in and out of the line up to manipulate probability distributions. Upon finishing the book, we are left with little idea of how Casey actually liked to built his teams, communicate with players, solve problems or provide leadership. We are told Stengel was (and considered himself) a good teacher, but we don't really know what Stengel was trying to teach, which is disappointing.

Queer-Ing the Screen: Sexuality and Australian Film and Television (The Moving Images)
Average customer rating:
Queer-Ing the Screen: Sexuality and Australian Film and Television (The Moving Images)
Samantha Searle
Manufacturer: Samuel French
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0646341588

Biker: Truth and Myth: How the Original Cowboy of the Road Became the Easy Rider of the Silver Screen
Average customer rating:

While rebels do exist, BIKER covers both types of groups

Biker Overview Since WW II

Excellent Overview - Great pics.....

Biker: Truth and Myth: How the Original Cowboy of the Road Became the Easy Rider of the Silver Screen
Bill Osgerby
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Motorcycles | Automotive | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Transportation | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Original Wild Ones: Tales of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club

The Big Book of Biker Flicks: 40 of the Best Motorcycle Movies of All Tiime

Brotherhood of Outlaws

The Brotherhoods: Inside the Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs

Angels of Death: Inside the Biker Gangs' Crime Empire

ASIN: 1592288413

Book Description

We all know the image: a big, burly guy on a motorcycle, clad in black leather and dark shades, with a red bandana knotted tightly around his head. His long hair whips around in the wind. It's just him and his Harley as he coasts down an open road on some deserted highway. But the so-called biker bad boys have come a long way from that typecast, tough-guy image, and cultural historian Bill Osgerby dispels these stereotypes--as seen in classic films like The Wild One, Wild Angels, and Mad Max--in Biker.

Osgerby proves that biker groups are no longer limited to gangs of hell-raisers. For one thing, a lot more women now ride with the wind in their hair as well, and thousands of bikers ride across the country for special charity events. But don't be fooled; the rebellious riders do still exist, and Biker gives equal time to the darker side of being a biker, exploring connections with the criminal underworld and the increasingly violent reality of rival motorcycle gangs.

Loaded with a mix of vintage and contemporary illustrations, old movie stills, posters, and magazine shots, Biker offers a clever breakdown of motorcycle culture, both in real life and popular cultural myth. With a wealth of information--including chapters on "The Last American Hero," "The Making of the Myth," "The Biker Movie," "Bikes and the Counterculture," "Women and Motorcycle Culture," "Global Brotherhood," "Bikers at War," and "The Iron Horse Corral"-- Biker is surely a book everyone will get revved up about.

Customer Reviews:

While rebels do exist, BIKER covers both types of groups.......2007-01-07

Think 'biker' and you think of a tough outlaw - but cultural historian Bill Osgerby thinks otherwise, and dispels the common stereotype in his BIKER: TRUTH AND MYTH, a survey of how the original biker became the bad boy of the movies. Biker groups aren't limited to gangs: they can consist of seniors and other groups, especially today. While rebels do exist, BIKER covers both types of groups, packs in plenty of photos, and covers all kinds of details of motorcycle culture, from movies and magazines to stunt riders and beatniks.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Biker Overview Since WW II.......2006-03-09

I am a motorcyclist and I found little in there that I didn't already know although for a casual observer of the motorcycle scene or a new motorcyclist this book could be a good resource to describe the history of motorycling from WW II to the present. There is very little about motorcycling prior to WW II. The book tends to focus on the sensationalistic side of cycling with many pictures of old movie posters, paperback books, chopper magazines, etc. There is very little in here about motorcycles as a machine. It's more about the people. About a third of the books is about foreign (out of US) motorcyling which I really didn't want to read about. Good - the pictures of old movie posters. Bad - focuses on the sensational, not the everyday biker.

Excellent Overview - Great pics............2005-12-16

More a series of well done pictorial and historical essays and synopses than a book, this is nevertheless a great, quick overview of all things "Biker". This would be a fine addition to anyone's motorcyling collection but perfect for two things: 1) to provide a newbie with a quick, well written and interesting overview of motorcycling, key events, clubs, and social perceptions and 2) to see how many biker movies, or other collectable items you own that are pictured in the book!!!!

The book is written as a breezy account of the origins of motocycles, some of the key brands (H-D and Indian of course, but some others as well), the way groups and clubs developed, different biker "eras", the motorcycling press, Hollywood's use of the biker image for it's exploitation films, and some of the turf battles and results of various motorcycle club wars. It covers a huge amount of ground and doesn't miss too much. AAAA+ for layout, photos and images. Also covers the historical and now much growing interest by women in motorcycling.

The author describes himself as a hardcore biker and he has obviously done a great deal of reasearch and assembled the book's photographs and images (some very rare) in a splendid way. He is also spot on for historical accuracy. If your big slab is covered in snow, this is the book you want to be reading in between your winter projects!!!!

If you ride, this book shows you who and what traveled your road before....

Respects to All - Always in the Wind

The Big Boo

Book Description

AS a financial manager of a nonprofit organization, are you so preoccupied with its social and welfare objectives that you lose sight of operations efficiency and operating cost controls? In a time when you risk potential government cutbacks at any moment, informed resource management is more critical than ever. Financial Management for Nonprofits is a practical guide for financial managers in a variety of nonprofit organizations including charities, educational and medical institutions and religious organizations. Distinctive in its generous use of case stuides, examples and illustrations, this book also distinguishes itself through its emphasis on software. Its free software disk will help you to perform break-even, Cost-Value-Profit (CVP), financial ratio analysis, and "what if" analysis, and an appendix reviews and rates other available sofware programs. Financial Management for Nonprofits covers: Operational differences between nonprofit and for-profit corporations. Accounting practices broken down by specific nonprofit organizations. Ways to spot and avoid financial problems. Sort and long-term financing. Improving managerial and department performance.

Customer Reviews:

Lots of help!.......2000-04-14

Starting off, I had no idea where to begin which the financial management of a non-profit. I was worried this book would read through like an accounting textbook, but that is not the case at all. The book gives practical advice about running a non-profit and how this differs for a for-profit organization. There are also a lot of basic financial statements to use as examples. While this book did not contain all the information I was looking for, I found it to be a great starting point in my learning process.

Failure Is Impossible:: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words
Average customer rating:

Where are our great women leaders?

An invaluble resource for information on Women's Suffrage

A Wonderful Book - buy it.

Took the words right out of Susan's mouth

Great book, really makes you feel like you know Susan.

Failure Is Impossible:: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words
Lynn Sherr
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Marriage & Family | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Women | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Elections | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

The Elizabeth Cady Stanton-Susan B. Anthony Reader: Correspondence, Writings, Speeches (Women's Studies)

Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences, 1815-1897 (Classics in Women's Studies)

In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist

ASIN: 0812924304
Release Date: 1995-02-07

Book Description

Juxtaposed with contemporary reports and biographical essays, the words of this legendary suffragist reveal Susan B. Anthony as a loyal, caring friend, and an eloquent, humorous crusader. "More than a collection of well-arranged quotations, the work informs, inspires, and gives historical perspective".--The Houston Post. 33 photos & illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Where are our great women leaders?.......2004-09-15

I thought this book was fantastic. I found Lynn Sherr made Susan B. Anthony come real to me. I loved the speeches and correspondence included in the biography...I would have loved to have met this woman...in her lifelong battle for the vote she went from a social oddball to esteemed matriarch of the cause. I really enjoyed the contrast between her a Mrs. Cady-Stanton. My previous knowledge of Ms. Anthony consisted of the 3 lines included in most high school history books....now I have a profound respect for her work and achievement and found her an inspiration.

An invaluble resource for information on Women's Suffrage.......2004-05-09

Excellent book, a rare history book where the author allowed the subject of the book to speak in her own words, and not try to speak for the person. Anthony's letters and other correspondence are found in this book, and it's in reading these where we the reader get a more accurate portrayal of Anthony, then what we would read elsewhere. I used this book as one of my resources for a US History class, and it was very well received.I would recommend this book highly to anyone with an interest in the woman's rights movement, or anyone who needs to do a research paper on this remarkable woman. This is one of the rare history books that will always be interesting, as it was presented fairly and without predjudice from the author, or subsequent history. Modern Day Women take the right to vote for granted, but after reading this book, it's very unlikely that they will continue to do so. I know I had a whole new appriciation for my fore-mothers who sacrificed so much. A must read!

A Wonderful Book - buy it........2000-05-16

My youngest daughter (7 yrs old) needed to do a biography on a famous woman for school and chose Susan B. Anthony. I must admit I didn't know very much about her other than she was the leader of the sufferage movement.

I looked on Amazon and chose this book because of the reviews. The book is specatular. It is a collection of her speeches with connective writing from the writer providing historical perspective.

The combination of Ms. Anthony's own words with the understanding of women's position in society at the time made for a very powerful book. The first chapter made the most impact on my daughter which begins with the facts about women in those days.

I believe this is a book that needs to be in everyone's library.

Took the words right out of Susan's mouth.......1999-05-20

A complete, entertaining, informative, and poignant tribute to one of America's most self-sacrificing and spunky heroines. Full of quotes that make you want to laugh, cry, and stand up on a soapbox. Its best quality is the wide range of appeal: HERstory experts can find in-depth quptes and minute details, both women and men will be inspired by this courageous woman. Sherr does an excellent job of compiling the quote so that they flow almost by themselves, and fills in the gaps when necessary. After reading the book, you will truly believe that "Failure is impossible!"

Great book, really makes you feel like you know Susan........1997-07-28

This is absolutely one of my favorite historical biographies. This book really makes real what an influential person Susan B. Anthony was in her own day, and who she really was. The in-depth direct quoting from writings of the time and the extensive documentation together present a strong case. After reading this book, it's shocking to me that someone this important in our history would need a major struggle to have her statue drug out of the basement into the light of the Capitol Rotunda.

I found the book very inspiring, because Ms Anthony devoted her life to what must have seemed to most people at the time to be a hopeless cause: women's suffrage. She constantly had to pitch her case to those who could grant suffrage; those who one might think would be least sympathetic: men. Her dedication to her cause and her success in making progress is a valuable lesson to anyone faced with a seemingly impossible task.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Women and Language, published by George Mason University on September 22, 1995. The length of the article is 870 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Failure is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own words. (book reviews)
Author: Suzanne I. Dow
Publication: Women and Language (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1995
Publisher: George Mason University
Volume: v18 Issue: n2 Page: p51(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1947-1982, Part 1: The Western Powers (Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships)
Average customer rating:
Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1947-1982, Part 1: The Western Powers (Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships)
Norman Friedman
Manufacturer: Naval Inst Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Military Science | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0870219189

Book Description

THE MOST DISTURBING EVIDENCE
* Death threats to witnesses.
* Removal of alien bodies.
* One ET kept alive at secret location for a period of time.
* Scientific findings hidden away for secrecy purposes. This is the INSIDE story of the most famous UFO crash case of all time written by a full time investigator.

Book Description

In this classic narrative history of the construction of Glen Canyon Dam in the 1950s and 1960s, Russell Martin has captured the individual, cultural, political, and environmental dramas that brought into being the environmental movement we know today. Winner of the Caroline Bancroft History Prize, Martin's book is available again in a new edition with a revised foreword.

Across the West, calls for the removal of hydroelectric dams constructed during the Bureau of Reclamation's grand century of dam-building are being heard. More than thirty years later Glen Canyon Dam is still at the vortex of controversy, both because of its impact on ecological processes downstream and its drowning of natural landscapes behind its headwall. A STORY THAT STANDS LIKE A DAM is as compelling and relevant today as it was when it was first published.

Customer Reviews:

Why Glen Canyon Dam was mourned, and how it was built.......2006-01-21

Martin provides a thorough history of events leading up to the dam's construction as well as the history of that construction.

It's well researched, and does not grind environmental or other axes, so will be good reading for people who bring a variety of viewpoints to the question of whether Glen Canyon deserves a doff of the hat or some dynamite from Hayduke.

THE book on Glen Canyon Dam.......2005-09-27

This book is absolutely loaded with information on Glen Canyon, Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell, and Page, Arizona--the nearby town of dambuilders. Its author has tried incredibly hard, and succeeded, at writing a book that is unbelievably fair, and that presents the controversial story of the building of Glen Canyon Dam in as truthful and as unbiased a light as possible.

Russell Martin, the book's author, doesn't even mention (until the book's end) whether the book's main characters--the dambuilders and the conservationists--are republicans or democrats; this allows those characters to escape the stigma those labels would bring, and allows the reader to consider the characters just on what they did and what they said, and not instantly dismiss them because they're political parties may not be our own.

This book is beautifully researched, written as a gripping narrative, and well-worth reading--though I have to add that it's so full of information that about three-quarters of the way through the book I experienced a brief feeling of being absolutely glutted on facts about the subject.

This is an excellent book though, and I would recommend it (along with Jared Farmer's "Glen Canyon Dammed") to anyone interested in the subject of this controversy.

Good History.......2001-11-18

Martin's book is a good rendering of the planning, construction, completion, and opposition to the Glen Canyon Dam. The book is a good historical work, though I didn't find it a compelling read, like "Cadillac Desert". Martin's best prose is when he descibes life in the town of Page during the construction of the dam, with rich details about life in a government town in the middle of the desert. Very enjoyable read even if you wish Glen Canyon Dam would fall back into the canyon. Can make you appreciate fully the people who built it and the people who opposed it.

The Colorado River Role in the Development of the Southwest.......2001-03-07

THIS is a thoroughly gripping history of a great and fantastically beautiful river of the American Southwest, and of the powerful human beings locked in a bitter struggle over it, all their massive efforts to control it and equally determined efforts of those who did not want it controlled. Its climax is the completion of the monumental Glen Canyon Dam and the creation of Lake Powell, with a water storage capacity of 27 MILLION acre feet an a power-generating capacity to supply the needs of vast numbers of people and businesses over a vast range of our country. It is wrong to sugests that there are any villians in the story, but clearly, there are many heroic figures in a collosal struggle of competing interests, from the Sierra Club's David Brower, conservationist turned environmentalist, to the Bureau of Reclamation's Floyd Dominy, to prime contractor Merritt, Chapman Scott's chief engineer, Lem Wylie who got the job done despite the fact that the corporation went belly-up at the end. And it has politicians and statesmen-politicians from Colorado's Wayne Aspinall to Arizona's Stewart Udall and Barry Goldwater. Even Holywood with Charlton Heston and John Wayne, mercifully in bit sub-plots, grace a page or two. Every person even remotely interested in the history of our country's development and the beauty of the place it unfolded, should read Russell Martin's, "The Story That Stands Like a Dam."

A Story That Stands Like a Dam: Glen Canyon and the Struggle for the Soul of the West

Average customer rating:

A Story That Stands Like a Dam: Glen Canyon and the Struggle for the Soul of the West
Russell Martin
Manufacturer: Henry Holt & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WYXOVQ

A Story That Stands Like a Dam: Glen Canyon and the..... (ISBN:0805015515)

Average customer rating:

A Story That Stands Like a Dam: Glen Canyon and the..... (ISBN:0805015515)
Russell Martin
Manufacturer: Henry Holt Publ.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NQNRFG

Average customer rating:

Story That Stands Like Dam
Russell Martin
Manufacturer: Random House Value Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0517095750
Release Date: 1992-12-20

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books