02101cam a2200373 i 4500 890706883 TxAuBib 20230713120000.0 040520s2005||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2004048594 9780375407352 0375407359 9780375707254 0375707255 TxAuBib rda Watts, Steven, 1952- The People's tycoon : Henry Ford and the American century / Steven Watts. 1st ed. New York : A.A. Knopf, 2005. xv, 614 p : ill., PB ; 21 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references (pages 539-592) and index. Henry Ford, a major architect of modern America, has lived on in the imagination of his fellow citizens as an enduring figure of fascination, an inimitable individual, a controversial personality, and a social visionary from the moment his Model T brought the automobile to the masses and triggered the consumer revolution. Ford first made the automobile affordable, but grew skeptical of consumerism's corrosive impact on moral values; insisted on a living wage for his workers but opposed unions, established the assembly line but worried about its effect on the work ethic; welcomed African Americans to his company but was a rabid anti-Semite. Watts shows us how a Michigan farm boy emerged as one of America's richest men and one of its first mass-culture celebrities, became a folk hero to millions of ordinary citizens and yet also excited the admiration of Lenin and Hitler.--From publisher description. 20230713. Ford, Henry, 1863-1947. Industrialists United States Biography. Automobile industry and trade United States History. Mass production United States History. Biographies. Watts, Steven, 1952-, 1st ed. TXING