Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate - Hardcover

Baldwin, Neil

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1891620525 ISBN 13: 9781891620522

Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2001

Synopsis

Describes how Henry Ford promoted his anti-Semitic views in "The Dearborn Independent" and other publications and examines the response of the Jewish community in America as well as Ford's impact on the spread of anti-Semitism in Europe before World War II.

About this title

Review:

Henry Ford was not only one of America's great industrialists, he was also one of America's great haters. With "his rambling mouth" and his "volatile passions and budgetless financial resources," Ford became famous around the country and the world for his rabid anti-Semitism. "He did not like the Jews because he believed they were warmongering, manipulative, and alien," writes Neil Baldwin. A pacifist, Ford blamed the First World War on "German-Jewish bankers." In the 1920s, he published The Dearborn Independent, which featured notorious articles such as "The International Jew: The World's Problem." In 1938, he became the first American recipient of a Nazi award bestowed upon non-Germans. Baldwin details Ford's views and activities and also describes the phenomenon of anti-Semitism in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. Henry Ford once declared, infamously, "History is more or less the bunk." His descendents seem to disagree. "Beginning with Henry Ford II," writes Baldwin, "succeeding generations of Fords have sought to put an end to Henry Ford's dark legacy" by supporting Israel and Jewish charities. Their actions bear out what one Jewish newspaper said in response to Ford in 1920: "We are firm in our belief that stupidity cannot triumph." --John Miller

About the Author:

Neil Baldwin is the executive director of the National Book Foundation and the author of Legends of the Plumed Serpent, Man Ray, To All Gentleness: William Carlos Williams, and Edison. He lives in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.

About this edition

• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1891620525
• ISBN 13: 9781891620522
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432