View source for Henry Ford

{{short description|American business magnate (1863–1947)}}
{{about|the American industrialist|other people with the same name}}
{{protection padlock|small=yes}}
{{use American English|date=August 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| image              = Henry Ford portrait 1915 original (3x4 cropped).png
| caption            = Ford in 1915
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1863|07|30}}
| birth_place        = {{awrap|[[Springwells Township, Michigan]], U.S.}}
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1947|04|07|1863|07|30}}
| death_place        = {{awrap|[[Dearborn, Michigan]], U.S.}}
| resting_place      = Ford Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan
| occupation         = {{hlist|Engineer|[[Technological and industrial history of the United States|industrialist]]|[[The Dearborn Independent|publisher]]|philanthropist}}
| known_for          = {{blist|list_style=margin-left:0;|Founding and leading the [[Ford Motor Company]]| Pioneering a system that launched the mass production and sale of affordable automobiles to the public}}
| title              = President of [[Ford Motor Company]] {{awrap|(1906–1919, 1943–1945)}}
| years_active       = 1891–1945
| party              = {{plainlist|
* [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] (1881–1918)
* [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] (1918–1947)
}}
| spouse             = {{marriage|[[Clara Jane Bryant]]|1888}}
| children           = [[Edsel Ford|Edsel]]
| family             = [[Ford family (Michigan)|Ford]]
| awards             = [[Elliott Cresson Medal]] (1928)
| signature          = Henry Ford Signature.svg
}}
'''Henry Ford''' (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American [[Technological and industrial history of the United States|industrialist]] and [[business magnate]]. As the founder of the [[Ford Motor Company]], he is credited as a pioneer in making [[automobile]]s affordable for [[middle-class]] Americans through the system that came to be known as [[Fordism]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cwiek |first=Sarah |date=2014-01-27 |title=The Middle Class Took Off 100 Years Ago ... Thanks To Henry Ford? |url=https://www.npr.org/2014/01/27/267145552/the-middle-class-took-off-100-years-ago-thanks-to-henry-ford |access-date=2024-02-11 |work=[[National Public Radio]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Goodman |first=Peter |date=2024-06-10 |title=Lessons From Henry Ford About Today's Supply Chain Mess |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/10/business/henry-ford-supply-chain.html |access-date=2024-02-11 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> In 1911, he was awarded a patent for the transmission mechanism that would be used in the [[Ford Model T]] and other automobiles.

Ford was born in a farmhouse in [[Springwells Township, Michigan]], and left home at the age of 16 to find work in [[Detroit]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ford Home – The Henry Ford |url=https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/49763 |access-date=2024-02-11 |website=www.thehenryford.org |language=en}}</ref> It was a few years before this time that Ford first experienced automobiles, and throughout the later half of the 1880s, he began repairing and later constructing engines, and through the 1890s worked with [[DTE Electric Company|a division of Edison Electric]]. He founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903 after prior failures in business, but success in constructing automobiles.

The introduction of the Ford Model T vehicle in 1908 is credited with having revolutionized both transportation and American industry. As the sole owner of the Ford Motor Company, Ford became one of the wealthiest people in the world.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chiodini |first=Melanie |date=2013-01-18 |title=Vision and innovation: Lessons from Henry Ford |url=https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/vision_and_innovation_lessons_from_henry_ford |access-date=2024-02-11 |website=MSU Extension |language=en-us}}</ref> He was also among the pioneers of the [[Workweek and weekend|five-day work-week]]. Ford believed that [[consumerism]] could help to bring about [[world peace]]. His commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a [[Franchising|franchise]] system, which allowed for [[car dealership]]s throughout North America and in major cities on six continents.

Ford was known for his pacifism during the first years of [[World War I]], although during the war his company became a major supplier of weapons. He promoted the [[League of Nations]]. In the 1920s, Ford promoted [[antisemitic|antisemitism]] through his newspaper ''[[The Dearborn Independent]]'' and the book ''[[The International Jew]].'' He opposed his country's entry into [[World War II]], and served for a time on the board of the [[America First Committee]]. After his son [[Edsel Ford|Edsel]] died in 1943, Ford resumed control of the company, but was too frail to make decisions and quickly came under the control of several of his subordinates. He turned over the company to his grandson [[Henry Ford II]] in 1945. Upon his death in 1947, he left most of his wealth to the [[Ford Foundation]] and control of the company to his family.

==Early life==
Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863, on a farm in [[Springwells Township, Michigan]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Henry Ford – Visionaries on Innovation – The Henry Ford |url=https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/stories-of-innovation/visionaries/henry-ford/ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024223215/http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/default.asp |archivedate=October 24, 2008 |website=www.thehenryford.org}}</ref> His father, William Ford (1826–1905), was born in [[County Cork]], Ireland, to a family that had emigrated from [[Somerset]], England in the 16th century.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ford.ie/AboutFord/CompanyInformation/HistoryOfFord |title=The history of Ford in Ireland|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171119153940/http://www.ford.ie/AboutFord/CompanyInformation/HistoryOfFord|archive-date=November 19, 2017}}</ref> His mother, Mary Ford (née Litogot; 1839–1876), was born in Michigan as the youngest child of [[Belgian Americans|Belgian]] immigrants; her parents died when she was a child and she was adopted by neighbors, the O'Herns. Henry Ford's siblings were John Ford (1865–1927), Margaret Ford (1867–1938), Jane Ford ({{c.|1868–1945}}), William Ford (1871–1917), and Robert Ford (1873–1877). Ford finished eighth grade at a [[one-room school]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Henry Ford—Biography, Education, Inventions, & Facts |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Ford |access-date=February 6, 2022}}</ref> Springwells Middle School. He never attended [[Secondary school|high school]]; he later took a bookkeeping course at a commercial school.<ref>Nevins and Hill (1954), 1:90.</ref>

His father gave him a [[pocket watch]] when he was 12. At 15, Ford dismantled and reassembled the timepieces of friends and neighbors dozens of times, gaining the reputation of a watch repairman.<ref>Ford, ''My Life and Work'', 22–24; Nevins and Hill, ''Ford TMC'', 58.</ref> At twenty, Ford walked four miles to their [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal]] church every Sunday.<ref>Evans, Harold, "They Made America", Little, Brown and Company. New York.</ref>

Ford said two significant events occurred in 1875 when he was 12: he received the watch, and he witnessed the operation of a [[Nichols and Shepard]] road engine, "...the first automobile other than horse-drawn that I had ever seen".

Ford was devastated when his mother died in 1876. His father expected him to take over the family farm eventually, but he despised farm work. He later wrote, "I never had any particular love for the farm—it was the mother on the farm I loved."<ref>Ford, ''My Life and Work'', 24; Edward A. Guest, "Henry Ford Talks About His Mother," ''American Magazine'', July 1923, pp. 11–15, 116–120.</ref>

In 1879, Ford left home to work as an apprentice [[machinist]] in Detroit, first with James F. Flower & Brothers, and later with the [[Detroit Dry Dock]] Company. In 1882, he returned to Dearborn to work on the family farm, where he became adept at operating the [[Westinghouse Farm Engine|Westinghouse portable steam engine]]. He was later hired by [[Westinghouse Electric Corporation|Westinghouse]] to service their steam engines.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LIDyU91YMHAC |title=The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century |last=Watts |first=Steven |publisher=Random House, Inc. |year=2006 |isbn=978-0307558978 |page=28}}</ref>

[[File:Henry Ford 1888.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Henry Ford in 1888 (aged 25)]]
In his farm workshop, Ford built a "steam wagon or tractor" and a steam car, but thought "steam was not suitable for light automobiles," as "the boiler was dangerous." Ford also said that he "did not see the use of experimenting with electricity, due to the expense of [[trolley wires]], and "no storage battery was in sight of a weight that was practical." In 1885, Ford repaired an [[Otto engine]], and in 1887, he built a four-cycle model with a one-inch [[bore (engine)|bore]] and a three-inch [[stroke (engine)|stroke]]. In 1890, Ford started work on a [[two cylinder|two-cylinder]] engine.

Ford said, "In 1892, I completed my first motor car, powered by a two-cylinder four [[horsepower]] motor, with a two-and-half-inch bore and a six-inch stroke, which was connected to a [[countershaft]] by a belt and then to the rear wheel by a chain. The belt was shifted by a [[clutch|clutch lever]] to control speeds at 10 or 20 [[miles per hour]], augmented by a [[throttle]]. Other features included 28-inch wire bicycle wheels with rubber [[tire]]s, a foot brake, a 3-gallon gasoline tank, and later, a water jacket around the cylinders for cooling. Ford added that "in the spring of 1893 the machine was running to my partial satisfaction and giving an opportunity further to test out the design and material on the road." Between 1895 and 1896, Ford drove that machine about 1000 miles. He then started a second car in 1896, eventually building three of them in his home workshop.<ref name="Ford">{{Cite book |title=My Life and Work |last=Ford |first=Henry |date=2019 |isbn=9781545549117 |location=Columbia |pages=12–17}}</ref>

==Marriage and family==
Ford married [[Clara Jane Bryant]] (1866–1950) on April 11, 1888, and supported himself by farming and running a [[sawmill]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=Widow of Automobile Pioneer, Victim of Coronary Occlusion, Survived Him Three Years |date=September 29, 1950 |agency=Associated Press}}</ref> They had one child, [[Edsel Ford]] (1893–1943).<ref>{{Cite news |title=Edsel Ford Dies in Detroit at 49. Motor Company President, the Only Son of Its Founder, Had Long Been Ill. |date=May 26, 1943 |agency=Associated Press}}</ref>

==Career==
In 1891, Ford became an [[engineer]] with the [[DTE Electric Company|Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit]]. After his promotion to Chief Engineer in 1893, he had enough time and money to devote attention to his experiments on [[Petrol engine|gasoline engines]]. These experiments culminated in 1896 with the completion of a self-propelled automobile, which he named the [[Ford Quadricycle]]. He test-drove it on June 4. After various test drives, Ford brainstormed ways to improve the Quadricycle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1896/quad.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615125140/http://hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1896/quad.html|title=The Showroom of Automotive History: 1896 Quadricycle<!-- Bot generated title -->|archivedate=June 15, 2010}}</ref>

Also in 1896, Ford attended a meeting of Edison executives, where he was introduced to [[Thomas Edison]]. Edison approved of Ford's automobile experimentation. Encouraged by Edison, Ford designed and built a second automobile, completing it in 1898.<ref name="birth">Ford R. Bryan, [http://hfha.org/HenryFord.htm "The Birth of Ford Motor Company"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120829193220/http://hfha.org/HenryFord.htm|date=August 29, 2012}}, Henry Ford Heritage Association, retrieved August 20, 2012.</ref> Backed by the capital of Detroit [[lumber baron]] William H. Murphy, Ford resigned from the Edison Company and founded the [[Detroit Automobile Company]] on August 5, 1899.<ref name=birth/> However, the automobiles produced were of a lower quality and higher price than Ford wanted. Ultimately, the company was not successful and was dissolved in January 1901.<ref name=birth/>

With the help of [[C. Harold Wills]], Ford designed, built, and successfully raced a [[horsepower|26-horsepower]] automobile in October 1901. With this success, Murphy and other stockholders in the Detroit Automobile Company formed the [[Henry Ford Company]] on November 30, 1901, with Ford as chief engineer.<ref name=birth/> In 1902, Murphy brought in [[Henry M. Leland]] as a consultant; Ford, in response, left the company bearing his name. With Ford gone, Leland renamed the company the [[Cadillac Automobile Company]].<ref name=birth/>

Teaming up with former racing cyclist [[Tom Cooper (driver)|Tom Cooper]], Ford also produced the 80+ horsepower racer "[[Ford 999|999]]," which [[Barney Oldfield]] was to drive to victory in a race in October 1902. Ford received the backing of an old acquaintance, [[Alexander Y. Malcomson]], a Detroit-area coal dealer.<ref name=birth/> They formed a partnership, Ford & Malcomson, Limited, to manufacture automobiles. Ford went to work designing inexpensive automobiles, and the duo leased a factory and contracted with a machine shop owned by [[John F. Dodge|John]] and [[Horace E. Dodge]] to supply over $160,000 in parts.<ref name=birth/> Sales were slow, and a crisis arose when the Dodge brothers demanded payment for their first shipment.

===Ford Motor Company===
[[File:Ford Edison Firestone1.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Henry Ford with [[Thomas Edison]] and [[Harvey S. Firestone]]. [[Fort Myers, Florida]], February 11, 1929.]]

In response, Malcomson brought in another group of investors and convinced the Dodge brothers to accept a portion of the new company.<ref name=birth/> Ford & Malcomson was reincorporated as the [[Ford Motor Company]] on June 16, 1903,<ref name=birth/> with $28,000 capital. The original investors included Ford and Malcomson, the Dodge brothers, Malcomson's uncle [[John S. Gray (Michigan)|John S. Gray]], Malcolmson's secretary [[James Couzens]], and two of Malcomson's lawyers, John W. Anderson and [[Horace Rackham]]. Because of Ford's volatility, Gray was elected president of the company. Ford then demonstrated a newly designed car on the ice of [[Lake Saint Clair (North America)|Lake St. Clair]], driving {{convert|1|mi|km}} in 39.4 seconds and setting a new [[land speed record]] at {{convert|91.3|mph|km/h|abbr=off}}. Convinced by this success, race driver [[Barney Oldfield]], who named this new Ford model "[[Ford 999|999]]" in honor of the fastest [[locomotive]] of the day, took the car around the country, making the Ford brand known throughout the United States. Ford was also one of the early backers of the [[Indianapolis 500]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum |url=https://imsmuseum.org/fame_inductee/henry-ford/ |website=Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum |access-date=10 November 2023}}</ref>[[File:1909 Ford Advance Catalog - Model T Transmission.png|thumb|Ford's [[Transmission (mechanical device)|Transmission Mechanism]]. (1909)]]

=== Transmission Patent ===
In 1909, Ford applied for a patent on his new [[Transmission (mechanical device)|transmission]] mechanism. It was awarded a patent in 1911.<ref>{{Cite patent|number=US1005186A|title=Transmission mechanism|gdate=1911-10-10|invent1=Ford|inventor1-first=Henry|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US1005186A/en}}.</ref>

====Model T====
The [[Model T]] debuted on October 1, 1908. It had the [[steering wheel]] on the left, which every other company soon copied. The entire engine and [[Transmission (mechanical device)|transmission]] were enclosed; the four cylinders were cast in a solid block; the [[Car suspension|suspension]] used two semi-elliptic springs. The car was simple to drive, easy and inexpensive to repair. It was so inexpensive at $825 in 1908 (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|825|1908|r=-1}}}} today), with the price falling every year, that by the 1920s, a majority of American drivers had learned to drive on the Model T.<ref>Richard Bak, ''Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire'' (2003), pp. 54–63.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/ |title=The Life of Henry Ford |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011005164558/http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/ |archive-date=October 5, 2001 |access-date=November 28, 2013}}</ref>

[[File:Ford assembly line - 1913 (restored).jpg|left|thumb|Ford assembly line, 1913]]

Ford created a huge publicity machine in Detroit to ensure every newspaper carried stories and ads about the new product. Ford's network of local dealers made the car ubiquitous in almost every city in North America. As independent dealers, the franchises grew rich and publicized not just the Ford but also the concept of car local [[motor club|motor clubs]] sprang up to help new drivers and encourage them to explore the countryside. Ford was always eager to sell to farmers, who looked at the automobile as a commercial device to help their business. Sales skyrocketed—several years posted 100% gains on the previous year. In 1913, Ford introduced moving assembly belts into his plants, which enabled an enormous increase in production. Although Ford is often credited with the idea, contemporary sources indicate that the concept and development came from employees [[Clarence Avery]], [[Peter E. Martin]], [[Charles E. Sorensen]], and [[C. Harold Wills]].<ref>Nevins (1954), 1: 387–415.</ref> (See [[Ford Piquette Avenue Plant]].)

Sales passed 250,000 in 1914. By 1916, as the price dropped to $360 for the basic touring car, sales reached 472,000.<ref>Lewis 1976, pp. 41–59.</ref>

By 1918, half of all cars in the United States were Model Ts. All new cars were black; as Ford wrote in his autobiography, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_p72">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA72 p. 72].</ref> Until the development of the assembly line, which mandated black because of its quicker drying time, Model Ts were available in other colors, including red. The design was fervently promoted and defended by Ford, and production continued as late as 1927; the final total production was 15,007,034. This record stood for the next 45 years, and was achieved in 19 years from the introduction of the first Model T (1908).<ref>{{Cite news |title=Beetle overtakes Model T as world's best-selling car |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/beetle-overtakes-model-t-as-worlds-best-selling-car |access-date=2022-06-26 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref>

Henry Ford turned the presidency of Ford Motor Company over to his son [[Edsel Ford]] in December 1918. Henry retained final decision authority and sometimes reversed the decisions of his son. Ford started another company, Henry Ford and Son, and made a show of taking himself and his best employees to the new company; the goal was to scare the remaining holdout stockholders of the Ford Motor Company into selling their stakes to him before they lost most of their value. (He was determined to have full control over strategic decisions.) The ruse worked, and Henry and Edsel purchased all remaining stock from the other investors, thus giving the family sole ownership of the company.<ref>Nevins and Hill (1957), vol. 2.</ref>

In 1922, Ford also purchased [[Lincoln Motor Company|Lincoln Motor Co.]], founded by Cadillac founder [[Henry Leland]] and his son Wilfred during World War I. The Lelands briefly stayed to manage the company, but were soon expelled from it.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lincoln Motor Company Plant |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/lincoln-motor-company-plant.htm |website=National Park Service |access-date=July 1, 2021 |date=August 29, 2018}}</ref> Despite this acquisition of a premium car maker, Henry displayed relatively little enthusiasm for luxury automobiles in contrast to Edsel, who actively sought to expand Ford into the upscale market.<ref name="King 2003">{{harvnb|King|2003}}.</ref> The original [[Lincoln L series|Lincoln Model L]] that the Lelands had introduced in 1920 was also kept in production, untouched for a decade until it became too outdated. It was replaced by the modernized [[Lincoln K series|Model K]] in 1931.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Edsel Ford and the Lincoln DNA |url=https://corporate.ford.com/articles/history/edsel-ford-and-the-lincoln-dna.html |access-date=2023-10-19 |website=Ford Corporate |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:1924-1925 Ford - T Roadster, Coimbatore (1).jpg|thumb|A 1926 Ford T Roadster on display in India]]

By the mid-1920s, [[General Motors]] was rapidly rising as the leading American vehicle manufacturer. GM president [[Alfred Sloan]] established the company's "price ladder" whereby GM would offer an automobile for "every purse and purpose", in contrast to Ford's lack of interest in anything outside the low-end market. Although Henry Ford was against replacing the Model T, now 16 years old, Chevrolet was mounting a bold new challenge as GM's entry-level division in the company's price ladder. Ford also resisted the increasingly popular idea of payment plans for cars. With Model T sales starting to slide, Ford was forced to relent and approve work on a successor model, shutting down production for 18 months. During this time, Ford constructed a massive new assembly plant at River Rouge for the new Model A, which launched in 1927.<ref>Nevins and Hill (1957), 2: 409–436.</ref>

In addition to its price ladder, GM also quickly established itself at the forefront of automotive styling under [[Harley Earl]]'s Arts & Color Department, another area of automobile design that Henry Ford did not entirely appreciate or understand. Ford would not have a true equivalent of the GM styling department for many years.{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

====Model A and Ford's later career====
By 1926, flagging sales of the Model T finally convinced Ford to make a new model. He pursued the project with a great deal of interest in the design of the engine, chassis, and other mechanical necessities, while leaving the body design to his son. Although Ford fancied himself an engineering genius, he had little formal training in mechanical engineering and could not even read a blueprint. A talented team of engineers performed most of the actual work of designing the Model A (and later the flathead V8), with Ford supervising them closely and giving them overall direction. Edsel also managed to prevail over his father's initial objections in the inclusion of a sliding-shift transmission.<ref name="Sorensen1956p223">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|p=223}}.</ref>

The result was the [[Ford Model A (1927-1931)|Ford Model A]], introduced in December 1927 and produced through 1931, with a total output of more than four&nbsp;million. Subsequently, the Ford company adopted an annual model change system similar to that recently pioneered by its competitor General Motors (and still in use by automobiles today). Not until the 1930s did Ford overcome his objection to finance companies, and the Ford-owned [[Universal Credit Corporation]] became a major car-financing operation. Henry Ford still resisted many technological innovations, such as hydraulic brakes and all-metal roofs, which Ford automobiles did not adopt until 1935–1936. For 1932, however, Ford dropped a bombshell with the [[Ford flathead V8 engine|flathead Ford V8]], the first low-price eight-cylinder engine. The flathead V8, variants of which were used in Ford automobiles for 20 years, was the result of a secret project launched in 1930, and Henry had initially considered a radical X-8 engine before agreeing to a conventional design. It gave Ford a reputation as a performance make well-suited for hot-rodding.<ref>Nevins and Hill (1957), 2: 459–478.</ref>

Also, at Edsel's insistence, Ford launched Mercury in 1939 as a mid-range make to challenge Dodge and Buick, although Henry also displayed relatively little enthusiasm for it.<ref name="King 2003"/>

====Labor philosophy====
=====Five-dollar wage=====
[[File:Timehenryford.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine cover, January 14, 1935]]
Ford was a pioneer of "[[welfare capitalism]]", designed to improve the lot of his workers and especially to reduce the heavy [[turnover (employment)|turnover]] that had many departments hiring 300 men per year to fill 100 slots. Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best workers.<ref>Nevins and Hill (1957), 2: 508–540.</ref>

Ford astonished the world in 1914 by offering a $5 daily wage (${{Inflation|index=US|value=5|start_year=1914|r=0}} in {{Inflation/year|index=US}}), which more than doubled the rate of most of his workers.<ref>Using the [[consumer price index]], this was equivalent to $111.10 per day in 2008 dollars.</ref> A [[Cleveland, Ohio]] newspaper editorialized that the announcement "shot like a blinding rocket through the dark clouds of the present industrial depression".<ref>Lewis, ''Public Image,'' p. 71.</ref> The move proved extremely profitable; instead of constant employee turnover, the best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford, bringing their [[human capital]] and expertise, raising productivity, and lowering training costs.<ref>Nevins, ''Ford,'' 1: 528–541.</ref><ref>Watts, ''People's Tycoon,'' pp. 178–194.</ref> Ford announced his $5-per-day program on January 5, 1914, raising the minimum daily pay from $2.34 to $5 for qualifying male workers.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2014/01/27/267145552/the-middle-class-took-off-100-years-ago-thanks-to-henry-ford |title=The Middle Class Took Off 100 Years Ago ... Thanks To Henry Ford? |work=NPR.org |last=Ciwek |first=Sarah |date=January 27, 2014 |access-date=July 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106033815/https://www.npr.org/2014/01/27/267145552/the-middle-class-took-off-100-years-ago-thanks-to-henry-ford|archive-date=January 6, 2022|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/jan-5-1914-henry-ford-implements-5-a-day-wage/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206105248/https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/jan-5-1914-henry-ford-implements-5-a-day-wage/|archive-date=February 6, 2022|title=Jan. 5, 1914 : Henry Ford Implements the $5-a-Day Wage |website=The New York Times |author=The Learning Network |date=January 5, 2012 |access-date=July 29, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Detroit was already a high-wage city, but competitors were forced to raise wages or lose their best workers.<ref>Watts, ''People's Tycoon,'' pp. 193–194.</ref> Ford's policy proved that paying employees more would enable them to afford the cars they were producing and thus boost the local economy. He viewed the increased wages as profit-sharing linked with rewarding those who were most productive and of good character.<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_pp126-130">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA126 pp. 126–30].</ref> It may have been [[James Couzens]] who convinced Ford to adopt the $5-day wage.<ref>Lewis, ''Public Image,'' pp. 69–70.</ref>

Real profit-sharing was offered to employees who had worked at the company for six months or more, and, importantly, conducted their lives in a manner that Ford's "Social Department" approved. They frowned on heavy drinking, gambling, and on what are now called [[deadbeat parent|deadbeat dads]]. The Social Department used 50 investigators and support staff to maintain employee standards; a large percentage of workers were able to qualify for this "profit-sharing".<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|year=1915|title=Helpful Hints and Advice to Ford Employes [sic]|url=https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/367411/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119152200/https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/367411/|archive-date=November 19, 2021|access-date=February 13, 2021|website=www.thehenryford.org|publisher=Ford Motor Company|location=Detroit|pages=8–9|language=en}}</ref>

Ford's incursion into his employees' private lives was highly controversial, and he soon backed off from the most intrusive aspects. By the time he wrote his 1922 memoir, he spoke of the Social Department and the private conditions for [[profit-sharing]] in the past tense. He admitted that "paternalism has no place in the industry. Welfare work that consists of prying into employees' private concerns is out of date. Men need counsel and men need help, often special help; and all this ought to be rendered for decency's sake. But the broad workable plan of investment and participation will do more to solidify the industry and strengthen the organization than will any social work on the outside. Without changing the principle, we have changed the method of payment."<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_p130">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA130 p. 130].</ref>

=====Five-day workweek=====
In addition to raising his workers' wages, Ford also introduced a new, reduced workweek in 1926. The decision was made in 1922, when Ford and Crowther described it as six 8-hour days, giving a 48-hour week,<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_p126">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA126 p. 126].</ref> but in 1926 it was announced as five 8-hour days, giving a 40-hour week.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Crowther |first=Samuel |date=October 1926 |title=Henry Ford: "Why I Favor Five Days' Work With Six Days' Pay" |url=http://geowords.com/e_/e_readings/ford2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108141134/http://geowords.com/e_/e_readings/ford2.htm |archive-date=November 8, 2020 |magazine=World's Work |pages=613–616}}</ref> The program apparently started with Saturday being designated a workday, before becoming a day off sometime later. On May 1, 1926, the Ford Motor Company's factory workers switched to a five-day, 40-hour workweek, with the company's office workers making the transition the following August.<ref name="history">{{Cite web |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-factory-workers-get-40-hour-week/print |title=May 01, 1926 : Ford Factory workers get 40-hour week |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180325165437/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-factory-workers-get-40-hour-week/print |archive-date=March 25, 2018 |access-date=December 1, 2018 }}</ref>

Ford had decided to boost productivity, as workers were expected to put more effort into their work in exchange for more leisure time. Ford also believed decent leisure time was good for business, giving workers additional time to purchase and consume more goods. However, charitable concerns also played a role. Ford explained, "It is high time to rid ourselves of the notion that leisure for workmen is either 'lost time' or a class privilege."<ref name=history/>

=====Labor unions=====
Ford was adamantly against [[trade union|labor unions]]. He explained his views on unions in Chapter 18 of ''My Life and Work''.<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_pp253-266">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA253 pp. 253–66].</ref> He thought they were too heavily influenced by leaders who would end up doing more harm than good for workers, despite their ostensible good motives. {{Anchor|No_prosperity_without_productivity}} Most wanted to restrict productivity as a means to foster employment, but Ford saw this as self-defeating because, in his view, productivity was necessary for economic prosperity to exist.{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

He believed that productivity gains that obviated certain jobs would nevertheless stimulate the broader economy and grow new jobs elsewhere, whether within the same corporation or in others. Ford also believed that union leaders had a [[perverse incentive]] to foment perpetual socio-economic crises to maintain their power. Meanwhile, he believed that smart managers had an incentive to do right by their workers, because doing so would maximize their profits. However, Ford did acknowledge that many managers were basically too bad at managing to understand this fact. But Ford believed that eventually, if good managers such as he could fend off the attacks of misguided people from both left and right (i.e., both socialists and bad-manager reactionaries), the good managers would create a socio-economic system wherein neither bad management nor bad unions could find enough support to continue existing.{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

To forestall union activity, Ford promoted [[Harry Bennett]], a former [[United States Navy|Navy]] boxer, to head the Service Department. Bennett employed various intimidation tactics to quash union organizing.<ref>Harris, J.: ''Henry Ford'', pp. 91–92. Moffa Press, 1984.</ref> On March 7, 1932, during the [[Great Depression]], unemployed Detroit auto workers staged the [[Ford Hunger March]] to the [[Ford River Rouge Complex]] to present 14 demands to Henry Ford. The [[Dearborn, Michigan|Dearborn]] police department and Ford security guards opened fire on workers, leading to over sixty injuries and five deaths. On May 26, 1937, Bennett's security men beat members of the [[United Automobile Workers]] (UAW), including [[Walter Reuther]], with clubs.<ref name="Wallace">{{Cite book |last=Wallace |first=Max |url=http://archive.org/details/americanaxis00maxw |title=The American axis : Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the rise of the Third Reich |date=2003 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-312-29022-1 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}</ref> While Bennett's men were beating the UAW representatives, the supervising police chief on the scene was Carl Brooks, an alumnus of Bennett's Service Department, and Brooks "did not give orders to intervene".<ref name=Wallace />{{rp|311}}The following day photographs of the injured UAW members appeared in newspapers, later becoming known as [[The Battle of the Overpass]].{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Edsel—who was president of the company—thought Ford had to come to a [[collective bargaining]] agreement with the unions because the violence, work disruptions, and bitter stalemates could not go on forever. But Ford, who still had the final veto in the company on a ''de facto'' basis even if not an official one, refused to cooperate. For several years, he kept Bennett in charge of talking to the unions trying to organize the Ford Motor Company. Sorensen's memoir<ref name="Sorensen1956p261">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|p=261}}.</ref> makes clear that Ford's purpose in putting Bennett in charge was to make sure no agreements were ever reached.{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

The Ford Motor Company was the last Detroit automaker to recognize the UAW, despite pressure from the rest of the U.S. automotive industry and even the U.S. government. A sit-down strike by the UAW union in April 1941 closed the [[River Rouge Plant]]. Sorensen recounted<ref name="Sorensen1956pp266-272">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|pp=266–72}}.</ref> that a distraught Henry Ford was very close to following through with a threat to break up the company rather than cooperate. Still, his wife, Clara, told him she would leave him if he destroyed the family business. In her view, it would not be worth the chaos it would create. Ford complied with his wife's ultimatum and even agreed with her in retrospect.

Overnight, the Ford Motor Company went from the most stubborn holdout among automakers to the one with the most favorable UAW contract terms. The contract was signed in June 1941.<ref name="Sorensen1956pp266-272" /> About a year later, Ford told Walter Reuther, "It was one of the most sensible things Harry Bennett ever did when he got the UAW into this plant." Reuther inquired, "What do you mean?" Ford replied, "Well, you've been fighting General Motors and the Wall Street crowd. Now you're in here, and we've given you a union shop and more than you got out of them. That puts you on our side, doesn't it? We can fight General Motors and Wall Street together, eh?"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reuther Dickmeyer |first=Elisabeth |url=https://archive.org/details/puttingworldtoge0000dick/page/63 |title=Putting the world together : my father Walter Reuther, the liberal warrior |date=2004 |publisher=LivingForce Pub |isbn=978-0975379219 |location=Lake Orion, Michigan |page=[https://archive.org/details/puttingworldtoge0000dick/page/63 63] |oclc=57172289}}</ref>

===Ford Airplane Company===
[[File:Ford 4ATF.jpg|thumb|left|Ford 4-AT-F (EC-RRA) of the Spanish Republican Airline, [[L.A.P.E.]]]]
Like other automobile companies, Ford entered the aviation business during [[World War I]], building [[Liberty L-12|Liberty engines]]. After the war, it returned to auto manufacturing until 1925, when Ford acquired the [[Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company|Stout Metal Airplane Company]].

Ford's most successful aircraft was the [[Ford Trimotor|Ford 4AT Trimotor]], often called the "Tin Goose" because of its corrugated metal construction. It used a new alloy called [[Alclad]] that combined the corrosion resistance of aluminum with the strength of [[duralumin]]. The plane was similar to [[Fokker]]'s V.VII–3m. The Trimotor first flew on June 11, 1926, and was the first successful U.S. passenger airliner, accommodating about 12 passengers in a rather uncomfortable fashion. Several variants were also used by the [[U.S. Army]]. The [[Smithsonian Institution]] has honored Ford for changing the aviation industry. 199 Trimotors were built before it was discontinued in 1933, when the Ford Airplane Division shut down because of poor sales during the [[Great Depression]].

In 1985, Ford was posthumously inducted into the [[National Aviation Hall of Fame]] for his impact on the industry.<ref name=NAHF/>

====World War I era and peace activism====
{{Further|Peace Ship|1918 United States Senate election in Michigan}}

Ford opposed war, which he viewed as a terrible waste,<ref name="Ford-Bio-A&E">Henry Ford, Biography (March 25, 1999). ''A&E Television''.</ref><ref>Michigan History, January/February 1993.</ref> and supported causes that opposed [[military intervention]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2017/04/06/examining-american-peace-movement-prior-world-war-i |title=Examining the American peace movement prior to World War I |date=April 6, 2017}}</ref> Ford became highly critical of those who he felt financed war, and he tried to stop them. In 1915, the pacifist [[Rosika Schwimmer]] gained favor with Ford, who agreed to fund a [[Peace Ship]] to Europe, where World War I was raging. He led 170 other peace activists. Ford's Episcopalian pastor, Reverend Samuel S. Marquis, accompanied him on the mission. Marquis headed Ford's Sociology Department from 1913 to 1921. Ford talked to President Woodrow Wilson about the mission, but had no government support. His group went to neutral Sweden and the Netherlands to meet with peace activists. A target of much ridicule, Ford left the ship as soon as it reached Sweden.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Watts |url=https://archive.org/details/peoplestycoonhen00watt |title=''The People's Tycoon'' |publisher=A. A. Knopf |year=2005 |isbn=9780375407352 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/peoplestycoonhen00watt/page/225 225–249] |url-access=registration}}</ref> In 1915, Ford blamed "German-Jewish bankers" for instigating the war.<ref>Norwood, Stephen Harlan. ''Encyclopedia of American Jewish History''. Vol. 1. Abc-clio, 2008, p. 182.</ref>

According to biographer Steven Watts, Ford's status as a leading industrialist gave him a worldview that warfare was wasteful folly that retarded long-term economic growth. The losing side in the war typically suffered heavy damage. Small businesses were especially hurt, for it takes years to recuperate. He argued in many newspaper articles that a focus on business efficiency would discourage warfare because, "If every man who manufactures an article would make the very best he can in the very best way at the very lowest possible price, the world would be kept out of war, for commercialists would not have to search for outside markets which the other fellow covets." Ford admitted that munitions makers enjoyed wars, but he argued that most businesses wanted to avoid wars and instead work to manufacture and sell useful goods, hire workers, and generate steady, long-term profits.<ref>Steven Watts, ''The people's tycoon: Henry Ford and the American century'' (Vintage, 2009). pp. 236–237.</ref>

Ford's British factories produced [[Fordson]] tractors to increase the British food supply, as well as trucks and warplane engines. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Ford went quiet on foreign policy. His company became a major supplier of weapons, especially the Liberty engine for warplanes and [[Eagle-class patrol craft|anti-submarine boats]].<ref name=Ford/>{{rp|95–100,119}}<ref>Allan Nevins and Frank Ernest Hill, ''Ford: Expansion and Challenge, 1915–1933'' (1957), 2: 55–85.</ref>

In 1918, with the war on and the [[League of Nations]] a growing issue in global politics, President [[Woodrow Wilson]], a Democrat, encouraged Ford to run for a Michigan seat in the U.S. Senate. Wilson believed that Ford could tip the scales in Congress in favor of Wilson's proposed [[League of Nations|League]]. "You are the only man in Michigan who can be elected and help bring about the peace you so desire," the president wrote Ford. Ford wrote back: "If they want to elect me, let them do so, but I won't make a penny's investment." Ford did run, however, and came within 7,000 votes of winning, out of more than 400,000 cast statewide.<ref>Banham, Russ. (2002) ''The Ford Century.'' Tehabi Books. {{ISBN|188765688X}}, p. 44.</ref> He was defeated in a close election by the Republican candidate, [[Truman Newberry]], a former [[United States Secretary of the Navy]]. Ford remained a staunch Wilsonian and supporter of the League. When Wilson made a major speaking tour in the summer of 1919 to promote the League, Ford helped fund the attendant publicity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Watts |url=https://archive.org/details/peoplestycoonhen00watt |title=''The People's Tycoon'' |publisher=A. A. Knopf |year=2005 |isbn=9780375407352 |page=[https://archive.org/details/peoplestycoonhen00watt/page/378 378] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>John Milton Cooper Jr., ''Woodrow Wilson: A Biography'' (2009), p. 521.</ref>

====World War II era and controversies====
Ford opposed the United States' entry into World War II<ref name="Wallace" /><ref>Baldwin, Neil (2001). ''Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate''. New York: Public Affairs.</ref> and continued to believe that international business could generate the prosperity that would head off wars. Ford "insisted that war was the product of greedy financiers who sought profit in human destruction". In 1939, he went so far as to claim that the torpedoing of U.S. merchant ships by German submarines was the result of conspiratorial activities undertaken by war-financier makers.<ref>Stephen Watts, ''The People's Tycoon'' (2005), p. 505.</ref> The financiers to whom he was referring were Ford's code for Jews; he had also accused Jews of fomenting the First World War.<ref name="Wallace" /><ref>Baldwin.</ref>

In the run-up to World War II and when the war erupted in 1939, he reported that he did not want to trade with belligerents. Like many other businessmen of the Great Depression era, he never liked or entirely trusted the Franklin Roosevelt Administration and thought Roosevelt was inching the U.S. closer to war. Ford continued to do business with [[Nazi Germany]], including the manufacture of war [[materiel]].<ref name="Wallace" /> However, he also agreed to build warplane engines for the British government.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://michiganhistory.leadr.msu.edu/wwii-and-ford-motor-company/|title=WWII and Ford Motor Company – Michigan History}}</ref> In early 1940, he boasted that Ford Motor Company would soon be able to produce 1,000 U.S. warplanes a day, even though it did not have an aircraft production facility at that time.<ref name="LegendOfHenryFord">{{cite book | last=Sward | first=Keith | title=The Legend of Henry Ford | publisher=Rinehart & Company Inc. | year=1948 | url=https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_d3s5 | access-date=April 26, 2020}}</ref>{{rp|430}} Ford was a prominent early member of the [[America First Committee]] against World War II involvement, but was forced to resign from its executive board when his involvement proved too controversial.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=Susan |title=1940 : FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler--the election amid the storm |date=2013 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0300195132 |location=New Haven, Connecticut |oclc=847526899}}</ref>

Beginning in 1940, with the requisitioning of between 100 and 200 French [[Prisoner of war|POWs]] to work as slave laborers, ''[[Ford Germany|Ford-Werke]]'' contravened Article 31 of the 1929 [[Geneva Conventions|Geneva Convention]].<ref name="Wallace" />

When [[Rolls-Royce Limited|Rolls-Royce]] sought a U.S. manufacturer as an additional source for the [[Rolls-Royce Merlin|Merlin]] engine (as fitted to [[Supermarine Spitfire|Spitfire]] and [[Hawker Hurricane|Hurricane]] fighters), Ford first agreed to do so and then reneged. He "lined up behind the war effort" when the U.S. entered in December 1941.<ref>Watts, ''The People's Tycoon'' (2005), p. 508.</ref>

====Willow Run====
Before the U.S. entered the war, responding to President Roosevelt's call in December 1940 for the "Great Arsenal of Democracy", Ford directed the [[Ford Motor Company]] to construct a vast new purpose-built aircraft factory at [[Willow Run]] near Detroit, Michigan. Ford broke ground on Willow Run in the spring of 1941, B-24 component production began in May 1942, and the first complete [[Consolidated B-24 Liberator|B-24]] came off the assembly line in October 1942. At {{convert|3,500,000|ft2|m2|abbr=on}}, it was the largest assembly line in the world at the time. At its peak in 1944, the Willow Run plant produced 650 B-24s per month, and by 1945, Ford was completing each B-24 in eighteen hours, with one rolling off the assembly line every 58 minutes.<ref name="Willowrun">Nolan, Jenny. [https://web.archive.org/web/20180625103810/http://blogs.detroitnews.com/history/1997/01/27/willow-run-and-the-arsenal-of-democracy/ "Michigan History: Willow Run and the Arsenal of Democracy."]  ''The Detroit News,'' January 28, 1997. Retrieved: August 7, 2010.</ref> Ford produced 9,000 B-24s at Willow Run, half of the 18,000 total B-24s produced during the war.<ref name="Willowrun" /><ref name="LegendOfHenryFord" />{{rp|430}}

====Edsel's death====
When Edsel Ford died of cancer in 1943, at age 49, Henry Ford nominally resumed control of the company, but a series of strokes in the late 1930s had left him increasingly debilitated, and his mental ability was fading. Ford was increasingly sidelined, and others made decisions in his name.<ref>Watts, ''The People's Tycoon'' (2005), p. 503.</ref> The company was controlled by a handful of senior executives led by [[Charles Sorensen]], an important engineer and production executive at Ford, and [[Harry Bennett]], the chief of Ford's Service Unit, Ford's paramilitary force that spied on and enforced discipline upon Ford employees. Ford grew jealous of the publicity Sorensen received and forced Sorensen out in 1944.<ref>Watts, ''The People's Tycoon'' (2005), pp. 522–525.</ref> Ford's incompetence led to discussions in Washington about how to restore the company, whether by wartime government fiat or by instigating a coup among executives and directors.<ref name="Sorensen1956pp324–333">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|pp=324–333}}.</ref>

====Forced out====
Nothing happened until 1945, when, with bankruptcy a serious risk, Ford's wife Clara and Edsel's widow Eleanor confronted him and demanded he cede control of the company to his grandson [[Henry Ford II]]. They threatened to sell off their stock, which amounted to three-quarters of the company's total shares, if he refused. Ford was reportedly infuriated, but he had no choice but to give in.<ref>Yates, Brock. "10 Best Moguls", in ''Car and Driver'', 1/88, p. 45.</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Maybe an less than perferct RS|date=March 2014}}<ref>Watts, ''The People's Tycoon'' (2005), pp. 522–527.</ref> The young man took over and, as his first act of business, fired Harry Bennett.

==Antisemitism and ''The Dearborn Independent''==
{{anchor|The Dearborn Independent and antisemitism}}
{{main|Dearborn Independent}}

Ford was a [[conspiracy theorist]] who drew on a [[Antisemitism|long tradition]] of [[Antisemitic trope|false allegations]] against [[Jews]]. Ford claimed that Jewish internationalism posed a threat to traditional American values, which he deeply believed were at risk in the modern world.<ref>Michael Alexander, Review of "Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate." ''Jewish Quarterly Review'' 94#4 (2004), pp. 716–718, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1455604 online].</ref> Part of his racist and antisemitic legacy includes the funding of square-dancing in American schools because he hated [[jazz]] and associated its creation with Jewish people.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=https://qz.com/1153516/americas-wholesome-square-dancing-tradition-is-a-tool-of-white-supremacy/ |title=America's wholesome square dancing tradition is a tool of white supremacy |last=Pennacchia |first=Robyn |date=December 12, 2017 |website=Quartz |access-date=June 16, 2019 }}</ref> In 1920, Ford wrote, "If fans wish to know the trouble with American baseball they have it in three words—too much Jew."<ref name="nyblueprint1">{{Cite web |last=Zeitlin |first=Alan |date=November 15, 2010 |title=Jews and Baseball Is a Film You Should Catch |url=http://nyblueprint.com/articles/view.aspx?id=824 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101210065732/http://nyblueprint.com/articles/view.aspx?id=824 |archive-date=December 10, 2010 |access-date=February 6, 2014 |publisher=The New York Blueprint}} (citing the 2010 documentary film ''[[Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story]]'', by [[Pulitzer Prize]] winner [[Ira Berkow]]).</ref>

In 1918, Ford purchased his hometown newspaper, ''[[The Dearborn Independent]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Dearborn Independent, February 20, 1926 – Henry Ford |url=https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/488175/ |access-date=2022-11-19 |website=www.thehenryford.org |language=en}}</ref> A year and a half later, Ford began publishing a series of articles in the paper under his own name, claiming a vast Jewish conspiracy was affecting America.<ref name="pbs.org">{{Cite web |title=Ford's Anti-Semitism {{!}} American Experience |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/henryford-antisemitism/ |access-date=2022-11-19 |website=www.pbs.org |language=en}}</ref> The series ran in 91 issues. Every Ford dealership nationwide was required to carry the paper and distribute it to its customers. Ford later bound the articles into four volumes entitled [[The International Jew|''The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem'']], which was translated into multiple languages and distributed widely across the US and Europe.<ref name="bridgemi.com">{{Cite web |title=Henry Ford and the Jews, the story Dearborn didn't want told {{!}} Bridge Michigan |url=https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/henry-ford-and-jews-story-dearborn-didnt-want-told |access-date=2022-11-19 |website=www.bridgemi.com |date=July 13, 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The International Jew: 1920s Antisemitism Revived Online {{!}} ADL |url=https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/the-international-jew-1920s-antisemitism-revived-online |access-date=2022-11-19 |website=www.adl.org |language=en}}</ref> ''The International Jew'' blamed nearly all the troubles it saw in American society on Jews.<ref name="pbs.org"/> The ''Independent'' ran under Ford's ownership until its closure in 1927. With around 700,000 readers of his newspaper, Ford emerged as a "spokesman for right-wing extremism and religious prejudice."<ref>Glock, Charles Y. and Quinley, Harold E. (1983). ''Anti-Semitism in America''. Transaction Publishers. {{ISBN|0-87855-940-X}}, p. 168.</ref>

[[File:1920 International Jew reprint from Dearborn Independent.jpg|thumb|upright|The Ford publication ''[[The International Jew|The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem]]''. Articles from ''[[The Dearborn Independent]]'', 1920]]
In Germany, Ford's ''The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem'' was published by [[Theodor Fritsch]], founder of several antisemitic parties and a member of the [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]], influencing German anti-Semitic discourse. In a letter written in 1924, [[Heinrich Himmler]] described Ford as "one of our most valuable, important, and witty fighters".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Allen |first=Michael Thad |url=https://archive.org/details/businessofgenoci00alle/page/14 |title=The Business of Genocide: The SS, Slave Labor, and the Concentration Camps |date=2002 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0807826775 |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |pages=[https://archive.org/details/businessofgenoci00alle/page/14 14, 290] |url-access=registration}} See also, {{cite book |last=Pfal-Traughber |first=Armin |title=Der antisemitisch-antifreimaurerische Verschwörungsmythos in der Weimarer Republik und im NS-Staat |publisher=Braumüller |year=1993 |location=Vienna, Austria |page=39 |language=de}} See also: [http://www.graswurzel.net/284/hohmann.shtml#u4 ''Eliten-Antisemitismus in Nazi-Kontinuität.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730212508/http://www.graswurzel.net/284/hohmann.shtml#u4|date=July 30, 2017}}, In: ''[[Graswurzelrevolution]].'' December 2003.  Pfal-Traughber and Allen both cite {{cite book |last1=Ackermann |title=Heinrich Himmler als Ideologe |page=37 |language=de}}</ref> Ford is the only American mentioned favorably in Hitler's autobiography ''[[Mein Kampf]]'',<ref>Adolph Hitler. [https://archive.org/stream/meinkampf035176mbp/meinkampf035176mbp_djvu.txt ''Mein Kampf''], pp. 929, 930.</ref> which appeared five years after Ford's anti-Semitic pamphlets were published in book form.

[[Adolf Hitler]] wrote, "only Ford, [who], to [the Jews'] fury, still maintains full independence ... [from] the controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions." Speaking in 1931 to a ''[[Detroit News]]'' reporter, Hitler said, "I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration," explaining his reason for keeping a life-size portrait of Ford behind his desk.<ref name="WP" /><ref name="bridgemi.com"/> Steven Watts wrote that Hitler "revered" Ford, proclaiming that "I shall do my best to put his theories into practice in Germany", and modeling the [[Volkswagen Beetle]], the people's car, on the Model T,<ref>Watts, p. xi.</ref> which was designed by members of the Austrian-German [[Ferdinand Porsche Jr.|Porsche]] family of sportscar makers. Max Wallace has stated, "History records that ... Adolf Hitler was an ardent Anti-Semite before he ever read Ford's ''The International Jew''."<ref>Wallace, Max. ''The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindberg and the Rise of the Third Reich'', St. Martin's Griffin, New York, p. 52.</ref> Ford also paid to print and distribute 500,000 copies of the [[antisemitic canard|antisemitic fabricated text]] ''[[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]''<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/the-dark-legacy-of-henry-fords-anti-semitism-commentary/2014/10/10/c95b7df2-509d-11e4-877c-335b53ffe736_story.htmlSemitic |title=Thepamphlets darkwere legacypublished ofin Henrybook Ford's anti-Semitism |last=Rudin |first=Aform. James |date=October 10, 2014 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=January 14, 2018}}</ref><ref name="Eisenstein">{{Cite web |last=Eisenstein |first=Paul A. |title=Mayor's attempt to censor local article about Henry Ford's anti-Semitism draws national attention |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/04/mayors-bid-to-censor-article-on-henry-fords-anti-semitism-goes-viral.html |access-date=2022-11-19 |website=CNBC |date=February 4, 2019 |language=en}}</ref> and is reported to have paid for the English translation of Hitler's ''Mein Kampf.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=ORF-Radiothek {{!}} 100 Jahre Autobahn (Part 2) |url=https://oe1.orf.at/player/20241008/772293/1728372603000 |access-date=2024-10-10 |website=oe1.orf.at |language=DE}}</ref> Historians say Hitler distributed Ford's books and articles throughout Germany, stoking the hatred that helped fuel the Holocaust.<ref name="Eisenstein"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/11/05/elon-musk-henry-ford-antisemitism/|title=Long before Elon Musk, Henry Ford went to war with Jewish groups|newspaper=Washington Post}}</ref>

On February 1, 1924, Ford received [[Kurt Ludecke]], a representative of Hitler, at home. Ludecke was introduced to Ford by [[Siegfried Wagner]] (son of the composer [[Richard Wagner]]) and his wife [[Winifred Wagner|Winifred]], both [[Nazi]] sympathizers and anti-Semites. Ludecke asked Ford for a contribution to the Nazi cause, but was apparently refused. Ford did, however, give considerable sums of money to [[Boris Brasol]], a member of the [[Aufbau Vereinigung]], an organization linking German Nazis and White Russian emigrants, which financed the recently established [[Nazi Party]].{{refn|Max Wallace. ''The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third Reich'', (Macmillan, 2004), pp. 50–54, {{ISBN|0312335318}}. Years later, in 1977, Winifred claimed that Ford had told her that he had helped finance Hitler. This anecdote is the suggestion that Ford made a contribution. The company has always denied that any contribution was made, and no documentary evidence has ever been found (''ibid'' p. 54). However, according to a captured Nazi document, the German subsidiary of Ford made a personal present to Hitler of 35,000 Reichsmarks in honor of his 50th birthday, in April 1939.<ref name="WP" /> See also [[Neil Baldwin (writer)|Neil Baldwin]], ''Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate'' (Public Affairs, 2002), pp. 185–89, {{ISBN|1-58648-163-0}}.}}<ref>Brigitte Hamann. ''Hitler's Vienna: A Dictator's Apprenticeship,'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. pp. 347–359.</ref>

Ford's articles were denounced by the [[Anti-Defamation League]] (ADL). While these articles explicitly condemned [[pogrom]]s and violence against Jews, they blamed the Jews themselves for provoking them.<ref>Ford, Henry (2003). ''The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem''. Kessinger Publishing. {{ISBN|0766178293}}, p. 61.</ref> According to some trial testimony, none of this work was written by Ford, but he allowed his name to be used as an author. Friends and business associates said they warned Ford about the contents of the ''Independent'' and that he probably never read the articles (he claimed he only read the headlines).<ref>Watts, pp. x, 376–387; Lewis (1976), pp. 135–159.</ref> On the other hand, court testimony in a [[libel]] suit, brought by one of the targets of the newspaper, alleged that Ford did know about the contents of the ''Independent'' in advance of publication.<ref name="Wallace" />

A libel lawsuit was brought by [[San Francisco]] [[lawyer]] and Jewish farm cooperative organizer [[Aaron Sapiro]] in response to the antisemitic remarks, and led Ford to close the ''Independent'' in December 1927. News reports at the time quoted him as saying he was shocked by the content and unaware of its nature. During the trial, the editor of Ford's "Own Page", William Cameron, testified that Ford had nothing to do with the editorials even though they were under his byline. Cameron testified at the libel trial that he never discussed the content of the pages or sent them to Ford for his approval.<ref>Lewis (1976), pp. 140–156; Baldwin, pp. 220–221.</ref> Investigative journalist [[Max Wallace]] noted that "whatever credibility this absurd claim may have had was soon undermined when James M. Miller, a former ''Dearborn Independent'' employee, swore under oath that Ford had told him he intended to expose Sapiro."<ref>Wallace, Max. (2003). ''The American Axis: Ford, Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third Reich''. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 30.</ref>

[[Michael Barkun]] observed: "That Cameron would have continued to publish such anti-Semitic material without Ford's explicit instructions seemed unthinkable to those who knew both men. Mrs. Stanley Ruddiman, a Ford family intimate, remarked that "I don't think Mr. Cameron ever wrote anything for publication without Mr. Ford's approval."<ref>Barkun, Michael (1996). ''Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement''. UNC Press. {{ISBN|0-8078-4638-4}}, p. 35.</ref> According to Spencer Blakeslee, "[t]he ADL mobilized prominent Jews and non-Jews to publicly oppose Ford's message. They formed a coalition of Jewish groups for the same purpose and raised constant objections in the Detroit press. Before leaving his presidency early in 1921, [[Woodrow Wilson]] joined other leading Americans in a statement that rebuked Ford and others for their antisemitic campaign. A [[boycott]] against Ford products by Jews and liberal Christians also had an impact, and Ford shut down the paper in 1927, recanting his views in a public letter to [[Sigmund Livingston]], president of the ADL."<ref>Blakeslee, Spencer (2000). ''The Death of American Antisemitism''. Praeger/Greenwood. {{ISBN|0275965082}}, p. 83.</ref> Wallace also found that Ford's apology was likely, or at least partly, motivated by a business that was slumping as a result of his antisemitism, repelling potential buyers of Ford cars.<ref name="Wallace" /> Up until the apology, a considerable number of dealers, who had been required to make sure that buyers of Ford cars received the ''Independent'', bought up and destroyed copies of the newspaper rather than alienate customers.<ref name="Wallace"/>

Ford's 1927 apology was well received. "Four-fifths of the hundreds of letters addressed to Ford in July 1927 were from Jews, and almost without exception they praised the industrialist..."<ref name="Lewis">{{Cite book |title=The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and His Company |last=Lewis |first=David I.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SudV13L6mkoC&q=four-fifths |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=1976 |isbn=978-0814315538}}, pp. 146–154.</ref> In January 1937, a Ford statement to ''[[The Detroit Jewish Chronicle]]'' disavowed "any connection whatsoever with the publication in Germany of a book known as the ''International Jew''".<ref name=Lewis/> Ford, however, allegedly never signed the retraction and apology, which were written by others—rather, his signature was forged by [[Harry Bennett]]—and Ford never actually recanted his antisemitic views, stating in 1940: "I hope to republish ''The International Jew'' again some time."<ref name="Pool_and_Pool_1978">{{Harvnb|Pool|Pool|1978}}.</ref>

[[File:Service Cross of the German Eagle.png|thumb|upright=0.9|left|[[Grand Cross of the German Eagle]], an award bestowed on Henry Ford by Nazi Germany on July 30, 1938.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-11-20 |title=Henry Ford receiving the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from Nazi officials, 1938 |url=https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/henry-ford-grand-cross-1938/ |access-date=2025-02-18 |website=Rare Historical Photos / Associated Press |language=en-US}}</ref> ]]
In July 1938, the German consul in Cleveland gave Ford, on his 75th birthday, the award of the [[Grand Cross of the German Eagle]], the highest medal Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner.<ref name="WP">{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm |title=Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged Nazi Collaboration |date=November 30, 1998 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=March 5, 2008 |pages=A01}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Kampeas|first=Ron|date=2020-02-08|title=At Ford-sponsored Auschwitz exhibit, no sign of founder's role in Nazi machine|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/at-ford-sponsored-auschwitz-exhibit-no-sign-of-founders-role-in-nazi-machine/|access-date=2022-02-05|website=Times of Israel|language=en-US}}</ref> [[James D. Mooney]], vice president of overseas operations for [[General Motors]], received a similar medal, the Merit Cross of the German Eagle, First Class.<ref name="WP" /><ref>Farber, David R. (2002). ''Sloan Rules: Alfred P. Sloan and the Triumph of General Motors''. University of Chicago Press, {{ISBN|0226238040}}, p. 228.</ref>

On January 7, 1942, Ford wrote another letter to [[Sigmund Livingston]] disclaiming direct or indirect support of "any agitation which would promote antagonism toward my Jewish fellow citizens". He concluded the letter with, "My sincere hope that now in this country and throughout the world when the war is finished, hatred of the Jews and hatred against any other racial or religious groups shall cease for all time."<ref name="Arnstein">"Arnstein & Lehr, The First 120 Years" (Louis A. Lehr, Jr.) (Amazon), p. 32.</ref>

The distribution of ''The International Jew'' was halted in 1942 through legal action by Ford, despite complications from a lack of copyright.<ref name=Lewis/> It is still banned in Germany. Extremist groups often recycle the material; it still appears on [[antisemitic]] and [[neo-Nazi]] websites. Testifying at [[Nuremberg Trials|Nuremberg]], convicted [[Hitler Youth]] leader [[Baldur von Schirach]] who, in his role as ''[[Gauleiter]]'' of Vienna, deported 65,000 Jews to camps in Poland, stated: "The decisive anti-Semitic book I was reading and the book that influenced my comrades was ... that book by Henry Ford, ''The International Jew''. I read it and became anti-Semitic. The book made a great influence on me and my friends because we saw in Henry Ford the representative of success and also the representative of a progressive social policy."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Baldur von Schirach before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg |date=May 23, 1946}}</ref>

Robert Lacey wrote in ''Ford: The Men and the Machines'' that a close Willow Run associate of Ford reported that when he was shown newsreel footage of the [[Nazi concentration camps]], he "was confronted with the atrocities which finally and unanswerably laid bare the bestiality of the prejudice to which he contributed, he collapsed with a [[stroke]] – his last and most serious."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lacey |first1=Robert |title=Ford |date=1986 |pages=218–219}}; which in turn cites:
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=The Poor Mr Ford |encyclopedia=Josephine Fellows Gomon Papers |location=[[Bentley Historical Library]] |series=draft manuscript |volume=Box 10}}</ref> Ford had suffered previous strokes and his final [[Intracerebral hemorrhage|cerebral hemorrhage]] occurred in 1947 at age 83.<ref name="AP-1947.04.08"/>

==International business==
Ford's philosophy was one of [[Economic nationalism|economic independence]] for the United States. His [[Ford River Rouge Complex|River Rouge Plant]] became the world's largest industrial complex, pursuing [[vertical integration]] to such an extent that it could produce its own steel. Ford's goal was to produce an automobile from scratch without reliance on foreign trade. He believed in the global expansion of his company. He believed that international trade and cooperation led to international peace, and he used the assembly line process and production of the Model T to demonstrate it.<ref>Watts, pp. 236–240.</ref>

He opened Ford assembly plants in Britain and Canada in 1911, and soon became the biggest automobile manufacturer in those countries. In 1912, Ford cooperated with [[Giovanni Agnelli]] of [[Fiat]] to launch the first Italian automotive assembly plants. The first plants in Germany were built in the 1920s with the encouragement of [[Herbert Hoover]] and the Commerce Department, which agreed with Ford's theory that international trade was essential to world peace and reduced the chance of war.<ref>Wilkins.</ref> In the 1920s, Ford also opened plants in Australia, France, India, and Mexico, and by 1929, he had successful dealerships on six continents. Ford experimented with a commercial rubber plantation in the [[Amazon Rainforest|Amazon]] jungle called [[Fordlândia]]; it failed.

[[File:Ford Bron Mezhlauk.jpg|thumb|right|upright|After signing the contract for technical assistance in building Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky) Automobile Plant. Dearborn, Mich., May 31, 1929. Left to right, [[Valery Mezhlauk|Valery I. Mezhlauk]], Vice Chairman of VSNKh; Henry Ford; [[Saul Bron|Saul G. Bron]], President of Amtorg.]]
In 1929, Ford agreed with the Soviets to provide technical aid over nine years in building the [[GAZ|first Soviet automobile plant (GAZ)]] near [[Nizhny Novgorod|Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky)]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Melnikova-Raich |first=Sonia |year=2011 |title=The Soviet Problem with Two 'Unknowns': How an American Architect and a Soviet Negotiator Jump-Started the Industrialization of Russia, Part II: Saul Bron |journal=[[IA, The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology]] |volume=37 |issue=1/2 |pages=5–28 |issn=0160-1040 |jstor=23757906}}</ref> (an additional contract for construction of the plant was signed with The Austin Company on August 23, 1929).<ref>{{Cite book |title=Building Utopia: Erecting Russia's First Modern City, 1930 |last=Austin |first=Richard Cartwright |publisher=Kent State University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-1612773216 |oclc=819325601}}</ref> The contract involved the purchase of $30,000,000 worth of knocked-down Ford cars and trucks for assembly during the first four years of the plant's operation, after which the plant would gradually switch to Soviet-made components. Ford sent his engineers and technicians to the Soviet Union to help install the equipment and train the workforce, while over a hundred Soviet engineers and technicians were stationed at Ford's plants in Detroit and Dearborn "for the purpose of learning the methods and practice of manufacture and assembly in the Company's plants".<ref>Agreement Between the Ford Motor Company, the Supreme Council of National Economy, and the Amtorg Trading Corporation, May 31, 1929, Amtorg Records 1929–1930, Acc. 199, box 1a, Benson Ford Research Center, The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Michigan.</ref> Said Ford: "No matter where industry prospers, whether in India or China, or Russia, the more profit there will be for everyone, including us. All the world is bound to catch some good from it."<ref>''The New York Times,'' May 5 and 7, 1929.</ref>

By 1932, Ford was manufacturing one-third of the world's automobiles. It set up numerous subsidiaries that sold or assembled the Ford cars and trucks:
{{Div col|colwidth=18em}}
* [[Ford Australia|Ford of Australia]]
* [[Ford of Britain]]
* [[Ford Motor Company of Argentina|Ford of Argentina]]
* [[Ford do Brasil|Ford of Brazil]]
* [[Ford Motor Company of Canada|Ford of Canada]]
* [[Ford of Europe]]
* [[Ford India Private Limited|Ford India]]
* [[Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa|Ford South Africa]]
* [[Ford Motor Company Philippines|Ford Philippines]]
{{div col end}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-10400, Henry Ford in Deutschland.jpg|thumb|left|Henry Ford in Germany; September 1930]]
Ford's image transfixed Europeans, especially the Germans, arousing the "fear of some, the infatuation of others, and the fascination among all".<ref name="Nolan, p. 31">Nolan, p. 31.</ref> Germans who discussed "Fordism" often believed that it represented something quintessentially American. They saw the size, tempo, standardization, and philosophy of production demonstrated at the Ford Works as a national service—an "American thing" that represented the [[culture of the United States]]. Both supporters and critics insisted that Fordism epitomized American capitalist development, and that the auto industry was the key to understanding economic and social relations in the United States. As one German explained, "Automobiles have so completely changed the American's mode of life that today one can hardly imagine being without a car. It is difficult to remember what life was like before Mr. Ford began preaching his doctrine of salvation".<ref name="Nolan, p. 31"/> For many Germans, Ford embodied the essence of successful Americanism.

In ''My Life and Work'', Ford predicted that if greed, racism, and short-sightedness could be overcome, then economic and technological development throughout the world would progress to the point that international trade would no longer be based on (what today would be called) colonial or [[neocolonialism|neocolonial]] models and would truly benefit all peoples.<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_pp242-244">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA242 pp. 242–244].</ref>

==Racing==
[[File:Henry Ford and Barney Oldfield with Old 999, 1902.jpg|thumb|Ford (standing) launched [[Barney Oldfield]]'s career in 1902.]]

Ford maintained an interest in auto racing from 1901 to 1913 and began his involvement in the sport as both a constructor and a driver, later turning the wheel over to hired drivers. On October 10, 1901, he defeated [[Alexander Winton]] in a race car named "Sweepstakes"; it was through the wins of this car that Ford created the Henry Ford Company.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2022/10/10/leonard-wood-gifts-edsel-ford-half-scale-replica-of-historic-sweepstakes/ |title=Leonard Wood gifts Edsel Ford half-scale replica of historic Sweepstakes |first=Zach |last=Sturniolo |website=NASCAR.com |publisher=NASCAR Digital Media, LLC |date=October 10, 2022 |access-date=October 11, 2022}}</ref> Ford entered stripped-down [[Model T]]s in races, finishing first (although later disqualified) in an "ocean-to-ocean" (across the United States) race in 1909, and setting a one-mile (1.6&nbsp;km) oval speed record at Detroit Fairgrounds in 1911 with driver Frank Kulick. In 1913, he attempted to enter a reworked Model T in the [[Indianapolis 500]] but was told rules required the addition of another {{convert|1,000|lb|kg}} to the car before it could qualify. Ford dropped out of the race and soon thereafter exited racing permanently, citing dissatisfaction with the sport's rules, demands on his time by the booming production of the Model T, and his low opinion of racing as a worthwhile activity.

In ''My Life and Work'' Ford speaks (briefly) of racing in a rather dismissive tone, as something that is not at all a good measure of automobiles in general. He describes himself as someone who raced only because in the 1890s through 1910s, one had to race because prevailing ignorance held that racing was the way to prove the worth of an automobile. Ford did not agree. But he was determined that as long as this was the definition of success (flawed though the definition was), then his cars would be the best that there were at racing.<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_p50">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA50 p. 50].</ref> Throughout the book, he continually returns to ideals such as transportation, production efficiency, affordability, reliability, [[fuel efficiency]], economic prosperity, and the automation of drudgery in farming and industry, but rarely mentions, and rather belittles, the idea of merely going fast from point A to point B.

Nevertheless, Ford did make an impact on auto racing during his racing years, and he was inducted into the [[Motorsports Hall of Fame of America]] in 1996.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9KOHEPbBBbIC&q=henry+ford+Motorsports+Hall+of+Fame+of+America+in+1996&pg=PA33 |title=The Intellectual Devotional Modern Culture: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Converse Confidently with the Culturati |last1=Kidder |first1=David S. |last2=Oppenheim |first2=Noah D. |year= 2008 |publisher=Rodale |isbn=978-1605297934 |language=en}}</ref>

==Later career and death==

By 1943, Henry Ford's health was in decline. He had suffered multiple cardiovascular events and was exhibiting signs of mental inconsistency, including increased suspicion and an inability to manage the immense responsibilities of running the company he founded.<ref name="Sorensen1956pp100_266_et_al">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|pp=100, 266, 271–272, 310–314}}.</ref> Despite his advanced age of nearly 80 and the reservations of the board of directors, Ford resumed the presidency of Ford Motor Company following the death of his son, Edsel Ford, in May 1943.<ref name="Sorensen1956pp325–326">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|pp=325–326}}.</ref> While he had not held an official executive title for two decades, his de facto control over the company had never been seriously challenged, and the board once again yielded to his authority, electing him to the presidency.

[[File:Charles Williams Nash and Henry Ford at 1946 Detroit Jubilee.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Charles W. Nash]] and Ford at the 1946 Automotive Jubilee, when both were 82]]
The company's financial state deteriorated significantly during his final term as president. It was losing over $10&nbsp;million a month (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|10000000|1943|r=-4}}}} today), and its operations were in such disarray that the [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt|Franklin Roosevelt]] administration reportedly considered a government takeover to ensure the company's continued contribution to the war effort.<ref name="Sorensen1956pp324–333" /> This plan never came to fruition, and Ford's presidency ended when he ceded control to his grandson, [[Henry Ford II]], in September 1945, at which point he retired completely.

[[File:Henry Ford grave Ford Cemetery Detroit.JPG|thumb|Ford grave, Ford Cemetery]]
Ford was honored for his profound impact on the automotive industry a year before his death. The [[Automobile Manufacturers Association]] sponsored the "Automotive Golden Jubilee".<ref name="Ferens">{{cite web|url= https://www.motorcities.org/story-of-the-week/2025/remembering-detroit-s-automotive-golden-jubilee-in-1946 |title=Remembering Detroit's Automotive "Golden Jubilee" in 1946 |first=A. Wayne |last=Ferens |date=26 March 2025 |website=motorcities.org |access-date=August 5, 2025}}</ref> Numerous events celebrated Detroit's status as the "Automobile Capital of the World" and commemorated the production of over 90 million automobiles in the industry's first 50 years.<ref name="Ferens"/><ref>{{cite web|url= https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/data/682920171 |title=Detroit Automotive Golden Jubilee collection, 1946 |website=researchworks.oclc.org |access-date=August 5, 2025}}</ref> The culminating ceremony on May 31, 1946, brought together fourteen living automotive pioneers.<ref name="Jansen"/> Ford was awarded for contributing to industrial development and "putting the world on wheels".<ref name="Jansen">{{cite web|url= https://www.supercars.net/blog/henry-ford-automotive-golden-jubilee/ |title=Henry Ford and the Automotive Golden Jubilee |first=Brad |last=Jansen |date=2021 |website=supercars.net |access-date=August 5, 2025}}</ref>

Ford died on April 7, 1947, at the age of 83, from a [[cerebral hemorrhage]] at his estate, [[Fair Lane]], in Dearborn, Michigan. A public viewing was held at Greenfield Village, attracting up to 5,000 people per hour who paid their respects. Funeral services took place at [[Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit|Cathedral Church of St. Paul]], and he was laid to rest at the Ford Cemetery in Detroit.<ref name="AP-1947.04.08">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/04/08/archives/pioneer-in-autos-leader-in-production-founded-vast-empire-in-motors.html |title=Leader in Production Founded Vast Empire in Motors in 1903. He had Retired in 1945. Began Company With Capital of $28,000 Invested by His Friends and Neighbors. Henry Ford Is Dead. Founder of Vast Automotive Empire and Leader in Mass Production |date=April 4, 1947 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=January 1, 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200126044543/https://www.nytimes.com/1947/04/08/archives/pioneer-in-autos-leader-in-production-founded-vast-empire-in-motors.html |archive-date=January 26, 2020 |agency=Associated Press }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Lochbeiler |first=Don |date=July 22, 1997 |title=I think Mr. Ford is Leaving Us |url= http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=117 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://archive.today/20120715093956/http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=117 |archive-date=July 15, 2012 |access-date=October 29, 2010 |newspaper=The Detroit News Michigan History}}</ref>
<!--On the night of his death, the [[River Rouge (Michigan)|River Rouge]] had flooded the local power station and had left Ford's house without electricity. Before going to sleep, Henry and his wife lit candles and oil lamps to light the house. Later that evening, just before dawn, he died.-->

==Personal interests==
A compendium of short biographies of famous [[Freemasonry|Freemasons]], published by a Freemason lodge, lists Ford as a member.<ref name="Denslow2004p62">{{Harvnb|Denslow|2004|p=62}}.</ref> The [[Grand Lodge of New York]] confirms that Ford was a Freemason and was raised in Palestine Lodge No. 357, Detroit, in 1894. When he received the 33rd degree of the [[Scottish Rite]] in 1940, he said, "Masonry is the best balance wheel the United States has."<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.nymasons.org/about-freemasonry/famous-masons-i.html |title=Famous Masons |date=January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110010123/http://www.nymasons.org/about-freemasonry/famous-masons-i.html |archive-date=November 10, 2013 |publisher=MWGLNY}}</ref>

In 1923, Ford's pastor and head of his sociology department, Episcopal minister Samuel S. Marquis, claimed that Ford believed, or "once believed," in [[reincarnation]].<ref>Marquis, Samuel S. ([1923]/2007). Henry Ford: An Interpretation. ''Wayne State University Press.''</ref>

Ford published an [[Tobacco control|anti-smoking]] book, circulated to youth in 1914, called ''The Case Against the Little White Slaver'', which documented many dangers of cigarette smoking attested to by many researchers and luminaries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://medicolegal.tripod.com/ford1914.htm|title=The Case Against the Little White Slaver (1914), by Henry Ford|website=medicolegal.tripod.com}}</ref> At the time, smoking was ubiquitous and not yet widely associated with health problems, making Ford's opposition to cigarettes unusual.

===Interest in materials science and engineering===
Henry Ford had a long-held interest in [[Materials science|materials science and engineering]]. He enthusiastically described his company's adoption of [[vanadium]] [[Alloy steel|steel alloys]] and subsequent [[Metallurgy| metallurgical]] [[Research and development|R&D]] work.<ref name="Ford1922pp18_65-67">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA18 18],[https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA65 65–67].</ref>

Ford also had a long-standing interest in plastics developed from agricultural products, particularly [[soybean]]s. He cultivated a relationship with [[George Washington Carver]] for this purpose.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/stories-of-innovation/visionaries/george-washington-carver/ |title=George Washington Carver – Visionaries on Innovation |website=www.thehenryford.org |language=en |access-date=October 22, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/george-washington-carver-begins-experimental-project-with-henry-ford |title=George Washington Carver begins experimental project with Henry Ford – July 19, 1942 |work=HISTORY.com |access-date=October 22, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/197274/ |title=George Washington Carver Examining Soy Fiber, Soybean Laboratory at Greenfield Village, 1939 |website=www.thehenryford.org |language=en |access-date=October 22, 2017}}</ref> Soybean-based plastics were used in Ford automobiles throughout the 1930s in plastic parts such as car horns, in paint and other components. The project culminated in 1942, when Ford [[Soybean Car|patented an automobile made almost entirely of plastic]], attached to a tubular welded frame. It weighed 30% less than a steel car and was said to be able to withstand blows ten times greater than steel. It ran on grain alcohol ([[ethanol]]) instead of gasoline. The design never caught on.<ref name="Lewis1995">{{Harvnb|Lewis|1995}}.</ref>

Ford was interested in [[engineered wood]]s ("Better wood can be made than is grown"<ref name="Ford1922p281">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA281 p. 281].</ref>) (at this time [[plywood]] and [[particle board]] were little more than experimental ideas); [[Biofuel|corn as a fuel source]], via both corn oil and ethanol;<ref name="Ford1922pp275-276">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA275 pp. 275–276].</ref> and the potential uses of cotton.<ref name="Ford1922p281" /> Ford was instrumental in developing charcoal [[Briquette|briquets]], under the brand name "[[Kingsford (charcoal)|Kingsford]]". His brother-in-law, [[Edward G. Kingsford]], used wood scraps from the Ford factory to make the briquets.

In 1927, Ford partnered with [[Thomas Edison]] and [[Harvey Samuel Firestone]] (each contributing $25,000) to create the Edison Botanic Research Corporation in Fort Myers, Florida, to seek a native source of rubber.

Ford was a [[List of prolific inventors|prolific inventor]] and was awarded 161 U.S. [[patent]]s.

===Florida and Georgia residences and community===
Ford had a vacation residence in [[Fort Myers, Florida]], next to that of Thomas Edison, which he bought in 1915 and used until {{circa|1930}}. It still stands today as a museum.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.edisonfordwinterestates.org/|title=Fort Myers Museums, Attractions, Things To Do &#124; Edison Ford Winter Estates|website=Edison and Ford Winter Estates}}</ref>
[[File:Richmond Hill Plantation, Ford Mansion, East of Richmond Hill on Ford Neck Road, Richmond Hill vicinity (Bryan County, Georgia).jpg|alt=Black and White picture of the Ford Mansion on the Richmond Hill Plantation.|thumb|The Ford Mansion on the Richmond Hill Plantation.]]
He also had a vacation home (known today as the "Ford Plantation") in [[Richmond Hill, Georgia|Richmond Hill]], Georgia, which is now a private community. Ford started buying land in this area and eventually owned 70,000 acres (110 square miles) there.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/historical_markers/county/bryan/henry-ford-at-richmond-hill |title=Henry Ford at Richmond Hill |last=Seibert |first=David |website=GeorgiaInfo: an Online Georgia Almanac |publisher=Digital Library of Georgia |access-date=November 7, 2016}}</ref> In 1936, Ford broke ground for a beautiful [[Greek revival]] style mansion on the banks of the [[Ogeechee River]] on the site of a 1730s plantation. The grand house, made of Savannah-gray brick, had marble steps, air conditioning, and an [[elevator]]. It sat on {{convert|55|acre}} of manicured lawns and flowering gardens. The house became the center of social gatherings with visits by the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and the DuPonts. It remains the centerpiece of The Ford Plantation today.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fordplantation.com |title=Home |website=The Ford Field & River Club |access-date=July 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220110212304/https://fordfieldandriverclub.com/|archive-date=January 10, 2022|url-status=live}}</ref> Ford converted the 1870s-era rice mill into his personal research laboratory and powerhouse and constructed a tunnel from there to the new home, providing it with steam. He contributed substantially to the community, building a chapel and schoolhouse and employing numerous residents.

===Preserving Americana===
Ford had an interest in [[Americana (culture)|Americana]]. In the 1920s, he began work to turn [[Sudbury, Massachusetts|Sudbury]], Massachusetts, into a themed historical village. He moved the [[Redstone School|Redstone schoolhouse]], supposedly referred to in the "[[Mary Had a Little Lamb]]" nursery rhyme, from [[Sterling, Massachusetts|Sterling]], Massachusetts, and purchased the historic [[Wayside Inn (Sudbury)|Wayside Inn]]. The historical village plan never came to fruition. He repeated the concept of collecting historic structures with the creation of [[Greenfield Village]] in [[Dearborn, Michigan|Dearborn]], Michigan. It may have inspired the creation of [[Old Sturbridge Village]] as well. About the same time, he began collecting materials for [[The Henry Ford|his museum]], which had a theme of practical technology. It was opened in 1929 as the [[The Henry Ford|Edison Institute]]. The museum has been greatly modernized and is still open today.

==In popular culture==
[[File:Mr and Mrs Henry Ford in his first car.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Henry and Clara Ford in his first car, the [[Ford Quadricycle]]]]
* In [[Aldous Huxley]]'s ''[[Brave New World]]'' (1932), society is organized on "Fordist" lines, the years are dated A.F. or Anno Ford ("In the Year of Ford"), and the expression "My Ford" is used instead of "My Lord". The Christian cross is replaced with a capital "T" for Model-T.
* [[Upton Sinclair]] created a fictional description of Ford in the 1937 novel ''[[The Flivver King]]''.
* Symphonic composer [[Ferde Grofé]] composed a [[tone poem]] in Henry Ford's honor (1938).
* "[[Lord, Mr. Ford]]", a 1973 song written by [[Deena Kaye Rose]] and recorded by [[Jerry Reed]] for his album of the same name, describes the impact of the automobile on modern American life and has the narrator addressing Ford in the chorus.
* Ford appears as a character in several historical novels, notably [[E. L. Doctorow]]'s ''[[Ragtime (novel)|Ragtime]]'' (1975), and [[Richard Powers]]' ''[[Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance]]'' (1985).<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/7bede61a-4654-11e5-b3b2-1672f710807b |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/7bede61a-4654-11e5-b3b2-1672f710807b |archive-date=December 10, 2022 |url-access=subscription |title=EL Doctorow's 'Ragtime' is still timely on tycoons |last=Hill |first=Andrew |date=August 19, 2015 |website=Financial Times |language=en-GB |access-date=October 11, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kušnír |first=Jaroslav |s2cid=54492211 |date=2017 |title=History, Art and Consumerism— Richard Powers' Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance |journal=CLEaR |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=11–16 |doi=10.1515/clear-2017-0002 |doi-access=free |issn=2453-7128}}</ref>
* Ford, his family, and his company are the subjects of the 1987 television film ''[[Ford: The Man and the Machine]]'', based on the 1986 biography ''Ford: The Men and the Machine'' by [[Robert Lacey]] and starring [[Cliff Robertson]] in the title role.
* In the 2004 alternative history novel ''[[The Plot Against America]]'', [[Philip Roth]] features Ford as [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]] in a fictional [[Charles Lindbergh]] presidential administration after Lindbergh's victory over Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election. The novel draws heavily on the administration's antisemitism and [[isolationism]] as a catalyst for its plot.
** In the 2020 [[HBO]] [[The Plot Against America (miniseries)|adapted miniseries of the same name]], Ford is portrayed by actor Ed Moran.
* Ford appears as a Great Builder in the 2008 strategy video game ''[[Civilization Revolution]]''.<ref>[http://www.civfanatics.com/civrev/great_people Civilization Revolution: Great People]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317031836/http://www.civfanatics.com/civrev/great_people|date=March 17, 2011}} "CivFanatics" Retrieved on September 4, 2009.</ref>
* In the fictional history of the ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' video game franchise, Ford is portrayed as having been a major [[Templar]] influence on the events of the [[Great Depression]], and later [[World War II]].<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Bertz|first=Matt|date=March 23, 2012|title=Assassin's Creed III: Evolution of the Templar Order|url=https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/03/23/the-evolution-of-the-templar-order.aspx|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104213335/https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/03/23/the-evolution-of-the-templar-order.aspx|archive-date=November 4, 2021|access-date=February 12, 2021|magazine=[[Game Informer]]|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Mirowski|first=Jakub|date=April 19, 2020|title=Adolf Hitler – Nazi puppet of the order. History according to Assassin's Creed|url=https://www.gamepressure.com/editorials/history-according-to-assassins-creed-conspiracy-theorists-paradis/zd28c-3|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105142527/https://www.gamepressure.com/editorials/history-according-to-assassins-creed-conspiracy-theorists-paradis/zd28c-3|archive-date=November 5, 2021|access-date=February 12, 2021|website=Game Pressure|language=en}}</ref>
* Ford is featured as an ally of [[Thomas Edison]] in the [[YouTube]] series ''[[Super Science Friends]]''.
* Todd Hofley portrays Ford twice in the [[CBC Television|Canadian television]] period [[Detective fiction|detective series]] ''[[Murdoch Mysteries]]'', in episode 6 of season 5 "[[List of Murdoch Mysteries episodes#Season 5 (2012)|Who Killed the Electric Carriage?]]" (April 3, 2012) and in episode 11 of season 13 "[[List of Murdoch Mysteries episodes#Season 13 (2019–2020)|Staring Blindly into the Future]]" (January 13, 2020).
* In 2023, Ford was featured in an episode of the YouTube comedic series ''[[Epic Rap Battles of History]]'', rapping against [[Karl Marx]].

==Honors and recognition==
* In December 1999, Ford was among 18 included in [[Gallup's List of Widely Admired People|Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th Century]], from a poll conducted of the American people.
* In 1928, Ford was awarded the [[Franklin Institute]]'s [[Elliott Cresson Medal]].
* In 1928, Ford was awarded the [[Order of the Crown of Romania|Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Romania]] by the [[Royal House of Romania]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Manolache |first=Mihaela |date=2023 |title=Reclamele industriei automobilului în presa românească interbelică |url=https://bibnat.ro/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Revista-BNaR-2019_2020_page_web.pdf |magazine=Revista Bibliotecii Naționale a României |pages=133 |issue=45–46 (2019–2020) |issn=3008-2390}}</ref>
* In 1938, Ford was awarded Nazi Germany's [[Order of the German Eagle|Grand Cross of the German Eagle]], a medal given to foreigners sympathetic to Nazism.<ref>Wallace, Max. ''The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third Reich''. New York: St. Martin's Press.</ref>
* The [[United States Postal Service]] honored Ford with a [[Prominent Americans series]] (1965–1978) 12¢ postage stamp.
* He was inducted into the [[Automotive Hall of Fame]] in 1946.<ref name="Blade">{{Cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19460501&id=K9lOAAAAIBAJ&pg=7083,56359 |title=Ten pioneers are named to automotive Hall of Fame |date=May 1, 1946 |work=[[Toledo Blade]] |access-date=March 5, 2016 |location=Toledo, Ohio |page=10}}</ref><ref name="AHF-Ford">{{Cite web |url=http://www.automotivehalloffame.org/inductee/henry-ford/62/ |title=Henry Ford |year=1946 |website=Hall of Fame Inductees |publisher=Automotive Hall of Fame |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304121039/http://www.automotivehalloffame.org/inductee/henry-ford/62/ |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |access-date=March 5, 2016}}</ref>
* In 1975, Ford was posthumously inducted into the Junior Achievement [[U.S. Business Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Francomano |first1=Joe |title=Junior Achievement: A History |last2=Lavitt |first2=Darryl |last3=Lavitt |first3=Wayne |date=1988 |publisher=Junior Achievement, Incorporated |page=89}}</ref>
* In 1985, he was inducted into the [[National Aviation Hall of Fame]].<ref name=NAHF>{{cite web |url-status=dead |url=https://www.nationalaviation.org/our-enshrinees/ford-henry/ |title=Ford, Henry |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211015201829/https://www.nationalaviation.org/our-enshrinees/ford-henry/ |archive-date=October 15, 2021 |website=[[National Aviation Hall of Fame]]}}</ref>
* He was inducted into the [[Motorsports Hall of Fame of America]] in 1996.<ref name="MSHoF">[http://www.mshf.com/hall-of-fame/inductees/henry-ford.html Henry Ford] at the [[Motorsports Hall of Fame of America]].</ref>

==See also==
{{Colbegin|colwidth=20em}}
* [[Capitalist peace]]
* [[Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad]]
* ''[[Dodge v. Ford Motor Company]]''
* [[Edison and Ford Winter Estates]]
* [[Ferdinand Porsche]]
* [[Ford family tree]]
* [[John Burroughs]]
* [[List of covers of Time magazine (1920s)|List of covers of ''Time'' magazine (1920s)]]
* [[List of richest Americans in history]]
* [[Outline of Henry Ford]]
* [[Preston Tucker]]
* [[Ransom Olds]]
* [[William Benson Mayo]]
{{Colend}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

===Sources===
{{refbegin|30em}}
*  {{cite book |title=10,000 Famous Freemasons |last=Denslow |first=William R. |others=Foreword by Harry S. Truman. |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |year=2004 |isbn=978-1417975785 |series=Part |volume=One, Volume 1, from A to J |orig-year=1957}}
* {{Ford1922}}
* Higham, Charles, ''Trading with the Enemy'' The Nazi–American Money Plot 1933–1949; Delacorte Press 1983
* Kandel, Alan D. "Ford and Israel" ''Michigan Jewish History'' 1999 39: 13–17. covers business and philanthropy
* {{cite magazine |last=King |first=Jenny |date=June 16, 2003 |title=Lincoln Mercury: Stumbling stepchild |magazine=Automotive News |location=Detroit, Michigan |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/219377741 |access-date=June 30, 2021 |id={{ProQuest|219377741}} |url-access=limited}}
* Lee, Albert; ''Henry Ford and the Jews''; Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated, 1980; {{ISBN|0812827015}}
* {{cite journal |last=Lewis |first=David L. |title=Henry Ford and His Magic Beanstalk |journal=Michigan History |date=1995 |volume=79 |issue=3 |pages=10–17}} Ford's interest in soybeans and plastics
* {{Citation |last1=Pool |first1=James |title=Who Financed Hitler: The Secret Funding of Hitler's Rise to Power, 1919–1933 |year=1978 |postscript=. |chapter='Chapter: Ford and Hitler' |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1wBoAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Dial Press |isbn=978-0708817568 |last2=Pool |first2=Suzanne}}
* Reich, Simon (1999) "The Ford Motor Company and the Third Reich" ''Dimensions'', 13(2):15–17.[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/ford.html online]
* {{Sorensen1956}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
===Memoirs by Ford Motor Company principals===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Ford |first1=Henry |last2=Crowther |first2=Samuel |author-link2=Samuel Crowther (journalist) |year=1926 |title=Today and Tomorrow |location=Garden City, New York City |publisher=Doubleday, Page & Company}} [[Edition (books)#Co-edition|Co-edition]], 1926, London, England, William Heinemann. Various republications, including {{ISBN|0915299364}}.
* {{Cite book |last1=Ford |first1=Henry |last2=Crowther |first2=Samuel |year=1930 |title=Moving Forward |location=Garden City, New York City |publisher=Doubleday, Doran & Company, Incorporated}} Co-edition, 1931, London, England, William Heinemann.
* {{Cite book |last1=Ford |first1=Henry |last2=Crowther |first2=Samuel |year=1930 |title=Edison as I Know Him |location=New York |publisher=Cosmopolitan Book Corporation}} Apparent co-edition, 1930, as ''My Friend Mr. Edison'', London, England, Ernest Benn. Republished as ''Edison as I Knew Him'' by American Thought and Action, San Diego, California, 1966, {{OCLC|3456201}}. Republished as ''Edison as I Know Him'' by Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007, {{ISBN|978-1432561581}}.
* {{Cite book |title=We Never Called Him Henry |last=Bennett |first=Harry; with Marcus, Paul |publisher=Fawcett Publications |year=1951 |location=New York |lccn=51036122 |author-link=Harry Bennett}}.
{{refend}}

===Biographies===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Bak, Richard (2003). ''Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire''. Wiley {{ISBN|0471234877}}
* Brinkley, Douglas G. ''Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress'' (2003)
* Halberstam, David. "Citizen Ford" ''American Heritage'' 1986 37(6): 49–64. interpretive essay
* Jardim, Anne. ''The First Henry Ford: A Study in Personality and Business Leadership'' Massachusetts Inst. of Technology Press 1970.
* Lacey, Robert. ''Ford: The Men and the Machine'' Little, Brown, 1986. popular biography
* {{Cite book |title=The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and His Company |last=Lewis |first=David I. |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=1976 |isbn=978-0814315538}}
* {{Cite book |title=Ford: The Times, The Man, The Company |last1=Nevins |first1=Allan |last2=Frank Ernest Hill |publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]] |year=1954 |location=New York |author-link=Allan Nevins}} [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.04045 ACLS e-book]; [https://archive.org/details/ford00nevi  also online free]
* {{Cite book |title=Ford: Expansion and Challenge, 1915–1933 |last1=Nevins |first1=Allan |last2=Frank Ernest Hill |publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]] |year=1957 |location=New York}} ACLS e-book
* {{Cite book |title=Ford: Decline and Rebirth, 1933–1962 |last1=Nevins |first1=Allan |last2=Frank Ernest Hill |publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]] |year=1962 |location=New York}} ACLS e-book
* Nye, David E. ''Henry Ford: "Ignorant Idealist."'' Kennikat, 1979.
* Watts, Steven. '' The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century'' (2005)
{{Refend}}

===Specialized studies===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Baime, A. J. ''The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War'' (2014).
* Barrow, Heather B. ''Henry Ford's Plan for the American Suburb: Dearborn and Detroit.'' DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 2015.
* Batchelor, Ray. ''Henry Ford: Mass Production, Modernism and Design'' Manchester University Press, 1994.
* Bonin, Huber et al. ''Ford, 1902–2003: The European History'', 2 vol, Paris 2003. {{ISBN|2914369069}} scholarly essays in English; reviewed in Holden, Len. "Fording the Atlantic: Ford and Fordism in Europe" in ''Business History '' Volume 47, #January 1, 2005, pp.&nbsp;122–27.
* Brinkley, Douglas. "Prime Mover". ''American Heritage'' 2003, 54(3): 44–53. on Model T.
* Bryan, Ford R. ''Henry's Lieutenants'', 1993; {{ISBN|0814324282}}
* Bryan, Ford R. ''Beyond the Model T: The Other Ventures of Henry Ford'' Wayne State Press, 1990.
* Dempsey, Mary A. "Fordlandia," ''Michigan History'' 1994 78(4): 24–33. Ford's rubber plantation in Brazil
* [[John Kenneth Galbraith|Galbraith, John Kenneth]]. "The Mystery of Henry Ford" ''The Atlantic'' (March 1958) [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1958/03/the-mystery-of-henry-ford/641305/ online], famous debunking essay.
* Grandin, Greg. ''Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City''. London, Icon, 2010. {{ISBN|978-1848311473}}
* {{Hounshell1984}}
* Jacobson, D. S. "The Political Economy of Industrial Location: the Ford Motor Company at Cork 1912–26." ''Irish Economic and Social History'' 1977 4: 36–55. Ford and Irish politics.
* Kraft, Barbara S. ''The Peace Ship: Henry Ford's Pacifist Adventure in the First World War'', Macmillan, 1978.
* Levinson, William A. ''Henry Ford's Lean Vision: Enduring Principles from the First Ford Motor Plant'', 2002; {{ISBN|1563272601}}
* Lewis, David L. "Ford and Kahn" ''Michigan History'' 1980 64(5): 17–28. Ford commissioned architect Albert Kahn to design factories
* Lewis, David L. "Working Side by Side" ''Michigan History'' 1993 77(1): 24–30. Why Ford hired large numbers of black workers
* Link, Stefan J. ''Forging Global Fordism: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the Contest over the Industrial Order'' (2020) [https://www.amazon.com/Forging-Global-Fordism-Germany-Industrial/dp/0691177546/ excerpt]
* McIntyre, Stephen L. "The Failure of Fordism: Reform of the Automobile Repair Industry, 1913–1940: ''Technology and Culture'' 2000 41(2): 269–99. repair shops rejected flat rates
* Meyer, Stephen. ''The Five Dollar Day: Labor Management and Social Control in the Ford Motor Company, 1908–1921'' (1981)
* Nevins, Allan, and Frank Ernest Hill. '' Ford: the Times the Man the Company'' (1954); ''Ford: Expansion and Challenge, 1915–1933'' (1957); ''Ford: Decline and Rebirth, 1933–1962'' (1963) comprehensive scholarly history
* Nolan; Mary. ''Visions of Modernity: American Business and the Modernization of Germany'' (1994)
* {{Cite journal |last=Pietrykowski |first=Bruce |year=1995 |title=Fordism at Ford: Spatial Decentralization and Labor Segmentation at the Ford Motor Company, 1920–1950 |journal=Economic Geography |volume=71 |issue=4 |pages=383–401 |doi=10.2307/144424 |jstor=144424}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Raff |first=Daniel M. G. and Lawrence H. Summers |s2cid=158557619 |date=October 1987 |title=Did Henry Ford Pay Efficiency Wages? |url=http://www.nber.org/papers/w2101.pdf |journal=Journal of Labor Economics |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=S57–S86 |doi=10.1086/298165}}
* Roediger, David, ed. "Americanism and Fordism—American Style: Kate Richards O'Hare's 'Has Henry Ford Made Good?'", ''Labor History'' 1988. 29(2): 241–252. Socialist praise for Ford in 1916.
* Segal, Howard P. "'Little Plants in the Country': Henry Ford's Village Industries and the Beginning of Decentralized Technology in Modern America", ''Prospects'' 1988. 13: 181–223. Ford created 19 rural workplaces as pastoral retreats.
* Tedlow, Richard S. "The Struggle for Dominance in the Automobile Market: the Early Years of Ford and General Motors", ''Business and Economic History'' 1988. 17: 49–62. Ford stressed low price based on efficient factories, but GM did better in oligopolistic competition by including investment in manufacturing, marketing, and management.
* Thomas, Robert Paul. "The Automobile Industry and its Tycoon", ''Explorations in Entrepreneurial History'' 1969. 6(2): 139–157. argues Ford did NOT have much influence on the US industry,
* Valdés, Dennis Nodin. "Perspiring Capitalists: Latinos and the Henry Ford Service School, 1918–1928", ''Aztlán'' 1981. 12(2): 227–239. Ford brought hundreds of Mexicans in for training as managers.
* [[Mira Wilkins|Wilkins, Mira]] and Frank Ernest Hill, ''American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents'' Wayne State University Press, 1964.
* Williams, Karel, Colin Haslam and John Williams, "Ford versus 'Fordism': The Beginning of Mass Production?", ''Work, Employment & Society'', Vol. 6, No. 4, 517–555 (1992), stresses Ford's flexibility and commitment to continuous improvements.
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Henry Ford}}
{{Wikiquote|Henry Ford}}
{{wikisource|works=or|Henry Ford}}
* Full text of ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7213 My Life and Work]'' from [[Project Gutenberg]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927043205/http://www.myviplife.com/lifestories/vipbusiness/Henry_Ford_wa.php?c=3 Timeline]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041111015724/http://www.hfha.org/ The Henry Ford Heritage Association]
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/henryford/ ''Henry Ford'']{{snd}}an ''[[American Experience]]'' documentary
* {{Gutenberg author | id=Ford,+Henry | name=Henry Ford}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry Ford}}
* {{Librivox author |id=987}}
* {{PM20|FID=pe/005358}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-bus}}
{{s-bef|before=[[John S. Gray (Michigan)|John S. Gray]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=President of [[Ford Motor Company]]|years=July 6, 1906 – July 11, 1919}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Edsel Ford]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Edsel Ford]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=President of [[Ford Motor Company]]|years=May 26, 1943 – September 21, 1945}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Henry Ford II]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-new|first}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[United States Senator|U.S. Senator]] from [[Michigan]]<br />([[Classes of United States Senators|Class 2]])|years=[[1918 United States Senate election in Michigan|1918]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Mortimer Elwyn Cooley]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Henry Ford}}
{{Ford Motor Company}}
{{SAE International}}
{{authority control}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|Business|Cars|Michigan}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Henry}}
[[Category:Henry Ford| ]]
[[Category:1863 births]]
[[Category:1947 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:19th-century American Episcopalians]]
[[Category:20th-century American engineers]]
[[Category:20th-century American Episcopalians]]
[[Category:20th-century American inventors]]
[[Category:20th-century American newspaper publishers (people)]]
[[Category:America First Committee members]]
[[Category:American anti–World War I activists]]
[[Category:American automotive engineers]]
[[Category:American book publishers (people)]]
[[Category:American collaborators with Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:American conspiracy theorists]]
[[Category:American founders of motor vehicle manufacturers]]
[[Category:American Freemasons]]
[[Category:American industrial engineers]]
[[Category:American Nazis]]
[[Category:American nonprofit businesspeople]]
[[Category:American pacifists]]
[[Category:American people of Belgian descent]]
[[Category:American people of English descent]]
[[Category:American businesspeople in the steel industry]]
[[Category:Antisemitism in Michigan]]
[[Category:Anti-smoking activists]]
[[Category:Bryant and Stratton College alumni]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Michigan]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1916 United States presidential election]]
[[Category:Engineers from Michigan]]
[[Category:Episcopalians from Michigan]]
[[Category:Ford executives]]
[[Category:Family of Henry Ford| ]]
[[Category:Inventors from Michigan]]
[[Category:Mass media people from Michigan]]
[[Category:Michigan Democrats]]
[[Category:People from Dearborn, Michigan]]
[[Category:People of the American Industrial Revolution]]
[[Category:Philanthropists from Michigan]]
[[Category:Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]