Studies in Design and Material Culture
1 total work
Henry Ford is often thought of as being the ultimate American folk hero who developed one of the most important changes to 20th-century American society - mass production. With his successive teams of engineers, Ford developed technologies which placed the motor car at the disposal of millions of people, freeing them from previous notions of distance and space, and re-shaping the modern urban environment worldwide. This is an exploration of the history of the technologies Ford was involved with, and also the intellectual and psychological outlook of the man, revealing doubts that Ford experienced about his groundbreaking discovery and its effects on society. It integrates the American tale with the British one, exposing the problems the company faced when it attempted to export into Britain the work practices which had swept away competition in America.