In The Fords: An American Epic, Peter Collier and David Horowitz tell the riveting story of three generations of Fords, a dramatic story of conflict between fathers and sons played out against the backdrop of Americaâs greatest industrial empire.
The story begins with the first Henry Ford, the mechanical wizard, tinkerer and âmad geniusâ who drove the automobile into the heart of American life and conquered the world with it. An American Original, by the end of his life he had become an embittered crank who so possessively loved the company he built that when his son, Edsel, tried to change it to suit the changing times, Henry destroyed him. It was left to Edselâs son Henry II to avenge him and save the Ford Motor Company in the postwar world.
From the details of the first Henryâs illicit affair and illegitimate son, to the life and loves of âHank the Deuceâ and his celebrated feud with Lee Iacocca, this is an engrossing account of a vital chapter in American history. The authors have added new material to this classic work, showing how Henry IIâs line lost out to the line of his brother William Clay Ford in the quest to control this most American of companies in the twenty-first century.
In addition to The Fords, Peter Collier and David Horowitz are the authors of dynastic biographies of the Kennedys, Roosevelts, Rockefellers, and Fondas.