A nuts-and-bolts biography of the great American visionary portrays a character of enormous contrasts. Curcio (Chrysler: The Life and Times of an Automotive Genius, 2000, etc.) certainly does not whitewash Ford's troubling character flaws, manifested in periods of parochialism, anti-Semitism and megalomania, but the author does a fine job delineating the staggering influence Ford wrought on the modern industrial landscape. His system of mass production revolutionized life for the average worker, creating a new social class that could also enjoy the goods that it made; on the other hand, Ford's urbanization helped destroy the agrarian life that he so nostalgically valued. Curcio covers several important currents that shaped the leader Ford would become: his resolve early on, with the death of his beloved, supportive mother, to keep his own counsel, which both worked toward his enormous success, as he followed his egalitarian business instincts, and blinded him to the wounds inflicted by his anti-Semitic editorials in the early 1920s; his ability to attract the best and the brightest in the industry, such as the Dodge brothers, accountant James Couzens and "father of the assembly line" Clarence Avery, among many others; and his lack of a formal education, which Curcio speculates had something to do with his inability to check his attraction to some wacky and hurtful ideas strangely at odds with his overarching views about happy, peaceful, harmonious workers. Yet Ford could also admit when he was licked, as evidenced by his apology in 1927 to Jewish lawyer Aaron Sapiro, a retraction of his attacks on Jews and his concession to the unionizing of Ford's River Rouge plant in 1941. An evenhanded study by an author determined to cover all the bases.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

This compact and easily digestible chronicle of Ford offers a conventional, chronological account based primarily on secondary sources. Curcio tracks Ford's life and accomplishments, beginning with his moderately prosperous childhood on a Michigan farm. Here Ford first revealed his fascination with machines and their practical application. As Curcio indicates, Ford didn't invent' the modern automobile, but he was a brilliant innovator who understood how to get man and machines to work in tandem. He was also a social visionary whose efforts to provide high wages helped foster the expansion of the middle class to include industrial workers. This was, of course, enlightened self-interest, but Curcio also asserts that Ford acted out of genuine altruistic motives. Yet Ford was rigidly anti-union and employed violent thugs to quash organized efforts. Although he instituted color-blind hiring practices, he promoted a particularly virulent form of anti-Semitism. Curcio has provided a useful survey of the life of this enigmatic industrial titan that is ideal for general readers.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2010 Booklist

Curcio (former general manager, White Barn Theater; Chrysler: The Life and Times of an Automotive Genius) provides here an in-depth review of the life of Henry Ford. Covering his life from Ford's humble, rural beginnings to his rise as one of the world's first billionaires, Curcio examines the many facets of the entrepreneur's often contradictory persona. To a much greater extent than in Richard Snow's new book, reviewed below, Curcio's biography scrutinizes Ford's public success, and explains that behind many of his accomplishments were inconsistent and incongruous actions. For example, Ford's publically expressed pacifism contrasted with the substantial profits he made in the production of wartime apparatus. Additionally, although Ford was renowned for hiring immigrants and minorities, Curcio dissects his role in the publication of anti-Semitic periodicals by the Ford Motor Company during the 1920s. -VERDICT Recommended for its insights into Ford's darker side, but optional for libraries with other Ford studies such as Steven Watts's The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century-Mary Jennings, Camano Island Lib., WA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This succinct biography is a rounded exploration of an extraordinary life, culled from an extensive and varied bibliography. The core is Ford's mysterious, contradictory personality-he was a generous, paternal boss who later opposed unionization; an outspoken anti-Semite with progressive, colorblind employment practices; and a vociferous pacifist who became a leading military supplier. Clashing aspects are considered thoughtfully, though Ford's inner workings, kept private due to his obsessively sculpted public persona, are seen only through actions at the macroscopic levels of big business, politics, and social change. Side details offer insight, such as Ford's key role in the soybean industry, and his surprising spiritual beliefs in a "universal mind... time without start or finish... [and] reincarnation." Curcio (Chrysler: The Life) deftly conveys the intricacies of big auto business with direct prose, occasionally enriched by invocations of Shakespeare, ancient Greece, and Zen maxims. Fundamentally, Curcio's Ford is a man "in motion all his life," an "enigma machine" who unrelentingly propelled America into a new paradigm-one increasingly removed from Ford's dearly held, old-fashioned values. In keeping with his ambiguous character, Ford is simultaneously a tragedy and a success story, and ultimately, a peerless American icon. Agent: Georges Borchardt, Georges Borchardt, Inc. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.