This interesting book would undoubtedly have fared better did it not include a short, extremely vicious anti-semitic diatribe. The book includes nice stories of Ford's early career and detailed discussion of all aspects of his approach to invention and manufacture, including a strong focus on iterative, customer-centered design. His approach is much governed by a clearly deep sense of the important of service to others. He then takes on a range of the world's problems as of 1922 -- war, charity, titles, welfare, financiers, unions (he opposed all of them). Although I only agree with a small fraction of Ford's worldview, I found it consistently thought-provoking, because he had thought everything through. Later in life Ford publicly recanted his anti-semitic fulminations. They seem somewhat out of synch with most of his philosophy so it isn't clear where they came from. Keep in mind that the book was written before Ford was forced to abandon some of the other principles espoused in the book, such as preventing Ford Motor Company employees from unionizing.
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