It would not be far from the truth to say that Henry Ford shaped the 20th century.
He made the car the most essential item to western consumers after a home, created the modern working week, and put the concept of the assembly line into practice.
Born in Michigan in 1863 to Irish immigrant parents, he trained as an engineer and began developing and test-driving automotive engines. He made much of his early reputation by racing prototype vehicles, in the process breaking the land-speed record in 1903.
In 1902, he set up the Henry Ford Motor Company with help from investors, but was soon forced out. It changed its name to Cadillac, leaving Ford to set up his eponymous firm in 1903.
By the 1910s, his Model T was already famous thanks to its success in a number of motoring competitions. By the end of the decade, half of the cars in America were Model Ts.
Thanks to the introduction of the moving assembly line Ford was producing around 15 million vehicles a year – a record that would not be broken until the 1970s.
Ford would measure which methods produce the quickest results and then lay down strict rules for how operatives should work. Monitoring of his workers extended beyond the factory floor: he had a profit share scheme which was tied to their lifestyles, administered by a ‘sociological department’ featuring 150 investigators. He also gave workers Saturdays off, setting the pattern for our working lives.
But meddling in workers’ home lives seemed trivial compared with his anti-semitism and Nazi sympathies. Ford published articles denouncing Jews through his paper The Dearborn Independent, including a 1920 book entitled The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem.
In the inter-war years, he helped the Nazi Government set up car factories and gave his backing to Hitler’s policies. He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle, the highest accolade for foreigners.
Ford destroyed the medal when war broke out, an act symbolic of his impending downfall. Increased competition was eating into sales, and US President Eisenhower was forced to pump cash into the company to avoid a slump in wartime production. Ford was replaced shortly after.
