The Flivver King: A Story of Ford America

Upton Sinclair was a precursor in his novels 'Oil' and 'The Jungle'. He was also a very good analyst about the way politicians and banks acted during the 1929 Depression. In `The flivver king, a story of Ford-America', written in 1937, he writes :"The first panic lasted several days; then it passed, and there was a lull, full on anxiety. President Hoover called a council of business leaders to discuss what was to be done, and these big medicine men assembled, and agreed that the country must have confidence, and they told the country to have it (...) The only thing he could think of (the US President, Herbert Hoover) was to have Congress vote huge sums to his friends and beneficiaries, the great banks and corporations ( ...) The theory was that this money would seep down to the consumers and promote trade. But what happened was that the money stayed right in the banks where he put It ; they couldn't lend it unless they could see a chance of profit, and how could a business man promise a profit when he couldn't find anybody who had money to spend? It was the end of an era".Does it sound familiar? Upton Sinclair explains how governments and bankers addressed the economical crisis. His story is only too familiar and somehow disturbing : they proposed more or less the same remedies, and made more or less the same promises than today, eighty years later. Are they smarter now? Or we will have more of the same ineffective medicine?Otherwise, the book is written in a clear and engaging way, easy to read, because it was a booklet aimed primary, to a special public, the Union workers.

This book is an amazing look at the beginning and evolution of the Ford automobile empire. As is Upton Sinclair's style, he wraps the story in a fictional narrative and shows the effects of the rise of the Ford empire on a working class family over two generations. Personally, I really enjoy Sinclair's style and have read a few of his other 90 published books and plan to read more. I have read other reviews criticizing Sinclair as having a simplistic style and not getting into the depth of his characters. I can't say that this is totally off base, but in my opinion he does this on purpose because he wants people to see it's less about the characters themselves and more of a sociopolitical phenomenon. Also, Sinclair was a Socialist and ardently fought for most of his life for the causes of the working class. Regardless of one's worldview there is much to be learned by reading "The Flivver King."

Nice blending of fact and fiction. More needs to be known of Henry Ford. besides the cars he created. 4/5 rating.

What a first hand view of life in the USA during the time of the author and FORD. Greed, crime, hoods, the over worked poor, it's all in there just as it was. Even my mother grew up during these times but not in that area. An excellent social commentary of what can go out of control in society for the sake of more personal gain as the young country takes on progress, held up by the disenfranchised.

There's a Ford in our past and Upton Sinclair wants you to know about it. And it's not always very nice. Many of us have heard about Henry Ford's dark side: a loner, anti-semite, anti-unionist, labor exploiter, and Sinclair synthesizes this in a novella built around a fictional worker and his family whose loyalty to Henry is stretched to the breaking point. Ford's good intentions are not overlooked: love of country and tradition as evoked in his fine Greenfield Village and museum of industry in Dearborn; his $5 a day wage, a breakthrough; his Model T, an affordable car for all Americans. The contrast between the high life to which he was accustomed and the impoverishment of most of Detroit during the Depression is vividly described. Having read the biographies of Walter Chrysler and Boss Kettering, I found Flivver King to be very light on the production of the automobile, for want of a better description, the "automotive engineering" side of things. I missed any mention of the other automotive pioneers, Olds, Nash, the Dodge brothers, the founders of General Motors, and of course Chrysler and Kettering. Although Flivver King is short, I found it tedious.

The usual sour socialist diatribe directed at a man who produced something where others saw nothing but has interesting things to say about power and how it can blind those with it to those without it.