Carefully crafted from thousands of Ford archives, written interviews, and first-hand accounts told by people who knew the man, Edsel: The Story of Henry Ford's Forgotten Son, brings into focus the remarkable life of Edsel Ford. The book chronicle's Edsel's life from his early days of growing up in and around his father's company, through the controversy of his World War I draft notice and eventual exemption, the design change from the Model T to the Model A, and the creation of the Ford Foundation. 27 chapters in all help to shed light on the life of a man who preferred to spend most of his life out of the limelight.
Tells the disastrous story of the design and development of the Edsel, with insights into this spectacular failure of the automobile industry to sell a car that it had marketed extensively.
The relationship that developed between Edsel Ford and E.T. "Bob" Gregorie (Ford Motor Company's first design chief) was unique in automotive history. Gregorie leaned heavily on Edsel for his support and protection, and Edsel depended on Gregorie for his creative abilities. Edsel Ford and E.T. Gregorie is the first book to provide in-depth analysis of how the early Fords, Mercurys and Lincolns were designed. Based on first hand discussions with Gregorie, author Henry Dominguez covers every major design of Gregorie's career. Automotive historians have listed the 1936 Zephyr, 1938 Zephyr, and 1939 Continental as Gregorie's greatest achievements. This book details the hows and whys of every Ford product designed under his tutelage.
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Monuments Men: "An astonishing account of a little-known American effort to save Italy's…art during World War II." —Tom Brokaw When Hitler’s armies occupied Italy in 1943, they also seized control of mankind’s greatest cultural treasures. As they had done throughout Europe, the Nazis could now plunder the masterpieces of the Renaissance, the treasures of the Vatican, and the antiquities of the Roman Empire. On the eve of the Allied invasion, General Dwight Eisenhower empowered a new kind of soldier to protect these historic riches. In May 1944 two unlikely American heroes—artist Deane Keller and scholar Fred Hartt—embarked from Naples on the treasure hunt of a lifetime, tracking billions of dollars of missing art, including works by Michelangelo, Donatello, Titian, Caravaggio, and Botticelli. With the German army retreating up the Italian peninsula, orders came from the highest levels of the Nazi government to transport truckloads of art north across the border into the Reich. Standing in the way was General Karl Wolff, a top-level Nazi officer. As German forces blew up the magnificent bridges of Florence, General Wolff commandeered the great collections of the Uffizi Gallery and Pitti Palace, later risking his life to negotiate a secret Nazi surrender with American spymaster Allen Dulles. Brilliantly researched and vividly written, the New York Times bestselling Saving Italy brings readers from Milan and the near destruction of The Last Supper to the inner sanctum of the Vatican and behind closed doors with the preeminent Allied and Axis leaders: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Churchill; Hitler, Göring, and Himmler. An unforgettable story of epic thievery and political intrigue, Saving Italy is a testament to heroism on behalf of art, culture, and history.
Robert M. Edsel brings the story of his #1 NYT bestseller for adults The Monuments Men to young readers for the first time in this dynamic, narrative nonfiction project packed with photos. Robert M. Edsel, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Monuments Men, brings this story to young readers for the first time in a sweeping, dynamic adventure detailing history's greatest treasure hunt.As the most destructive war in history ravaged Europe, many of the world's most cherished cultural objects were in harm's way. The Greatest Treasure Hunt in History recounts the astonishing true story of 11 men and one woman who risked their lives amidst the bloodshed of World War II to preserve churches, libraries, monuments, and works of art that for centuries defined the heritage of Western civilization. As the war raged, these American and British volunteers -- museum curators, art scholars and educators, architects, archivists, and artists, known as the Monuments Men -- found themselves in a desperate race against time to locate and save the many priceless treasures and works of art stolen by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
"Reconstructing the history of the Edsel--one of corporate America's greatest debacles--Jan Deutsch places it in its cultural, economic, and psychological setting ... Deutsch relates the Edsel event to J.K. Galbraith's theory of the technostructure, examines its impact on the climate of our times, and raises interesting questions about the role of the scholar in decision-making in America"--Cover.
The book that serves as the basis for the acclaimed George Clooney major motion picture, The Monuments Men. At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuhrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Monuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture. Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis.
Uses photographs to tell the untold story of the "Monuments Men" and their discovery of more than 1,000 repositories, many of which contained paintings, sculpture, furniture, and other treasures stolen by the Nazis.
