The Flivver King: A Story of Ford-America - Softcover

Sinclair, Upton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0882863576 ISBN 13: 9780882863573

Publisher: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, 1987

Synopsis

The Flivver King stands among the finest of modern American historical novels. It is history as it ought to be written - from the bottom up and the top down, with monumental sensitivity to the compromise and conflict between the two extremes. Its two stories - those of Henry Ford and Ford-worker Abner Shutt, unfold side by side, indeed dialectically. They are, in the end, one story: the saga of class and culture in 'Ford-America'. Workers and bosses, flappers and Klansmen, war and depression, Prohibition outlaws and high-society parties, unions and anti-union gun thugs - few aspects of American life in the first four decades of the last century are missing from this small masterpiece. The Flivver King sustains the same sure grasp of working class life which characterized Sinclair's earlier classic, The Jungle, but much less sentimentally and with a steadier focus on how alienated work breeds not only degradation but also resistance and revolt. Originally written in 1937 to aid the United Automobile Workers' organizing drive, The Flivver King answers the question "Why do we need a union?" with quiet eloquence. The Charles H. Kerr Company has reissued it as a great American novel and an important historical document, because that question has never gone away and is now more vital than ever. With an introduction from Steve Meyer.

About this title

About the Author:

Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore in September 1878. His father moved the family to New York City in 1888. Although his own family was extremely poor, he spent periods of time living with his wealthy grandparents. He later argued that witnessing these extremes turned him into a socialist. Sinclair funded his college education by writing stories for newspapers and magazines. Sinclair s first novel was published in 1901. Sinclair was extremely active in socialist politics throughout his life. His novel "Dragon s Teeth" (1942) on the rise of Nazism won him the Pulitzer Prize. By the time Upton Sinclair died in 1968, he had published more than ninety books.

About this edition

• Publisher: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0882863576
• ISBN 13: 9780882863573
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 119