Henry Ford and the Jews : The mass production of hate / Neil Baldwin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Baldwin, Neil, 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ford, Henry, 1863-1947.

Ford, Henry.

Industrialists--United States--Biography.

Industrialists.

United States.

Antisemitism--United States.

Antisemitism.

Jews--United States.

Jews.

Automobile industry and trade--United States--History.

Automobile industry and trade.

History.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xii, 416 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Public Affairs, [2001]

Summary:

A Visitor to Nazi Party Headquarters in Munich in the winter of 1922 would have immediately observed a large table covered with copies of the German edition of The International Jew by Henry Ford, and a framed photograph of the industrialist-author hanging on Adolf Hitler's office wall. In Henry Ford and the Jews, biographer Neil Baldwin reveals the complex tale of how "Heinrich" Ford promoted a virulent brand of antisemitism, disseminating his point of view through a privately-published newspaper, The Dearborn Independent -- and how the Jewish American community responded with alarm and courage.

Born on July 30, 1863, Henry Ford was raised on a prosperous farm near Dearbornville, Michigan. His early intellectual growth was dominated by The McGuffey Reader, a popular schoolbook featuring Shakespeare's Shylock, and traditional scriptural interpretations condemning Jews for not accepting Jesus Christ as the son of God. Countless young people of the Populist era absorbed these stereotypical messages but never embraced rabid antisemitism.

Henry Ford was different. The same formidable willpower and organizational instincts that led to Ford's renown and success as the inventor of the automobile assembly line, the same obsessive determination and singular focus that created the Ford Motor Company, resulted in the destructive mass production of hate. With America heading into World War I, Ford's media campaign took off and continued well into the 1930s, as he published The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, The International Jew, and, for ninety-one consecutive weeks, an uninterrupted series of venomous essays in The Dearborn Independent. Declaring "I know who caused the war," Henry Ford became ever more convinced that these "parasites, these sloths and lunatics...apostles of murder," the "German-Jewish bankers" were liable for society's ills.

With access to previously-unreferenced oral history transcripts, archival correspondence, and unpublished family memoirs, Neil Baldwin painstakingly interprets Henry Ford's bizarre statements, erratic deeds and halting apologies. He examines the influential, conservative biases of the men at the inner circle of the Ford Motor Company, and carefully recounts the painful ideological struggles among an elite Jewish leadership reluctantly pitted against the clout and popularity of "The Flivver King." And he traces Ford's unmistakable impact upon the growing antisemitic movement in Europe during the anxious decade leading up to World War II. Henry Ford and the Jews is the tragic, cautionary story of an American entrepreneur on a misguided mission.

Contents:

1 McGuffeyland 1

2 The Great Questions 8

3 Tin Lizzie 20

4 The Christian Century 27

5 Working Man's Friend 36

6 "I Know Who Caused the War" 48

7 The Bolshevik Menace 67

8 Exit Mr. Pipp 92

9 The Jewish Question 108

10 Retaliation 134

11 The Talmud-Jew 152

12 Heinrich Ford 172

13 Sapiro v. Ford 192

14 Apology 218

15 Apostle of Amity 241

16 The Chosen People 255

17 "I Am Not a Jew Hater" 268

18 Hitler's Medal 281

19 The Radio Priest 293

20 Transitions 309.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [335]-351) and index.

ISBN:

1891620525

OCLC:

48420980