History I need a book recommendation: Auto Industry History

I’m looking for a history of General Motors or Chrysler; or a Biography of Alfred Sloan, Billy Durant, the Dodge Brothers, or Walter P. Chrysler.

As things fall apart, and since I’ve moved into the heart of it all, I find myself frequently having to explain auto industry history to friends and family. But, ironically, most of what I know about the early days (1893-1940), I know from reading about that great hero of my childhood, Henry Ford, primarily in the biography Ford: The Men and the Machine.

Now it seems that I find myself talking about General Motors and poor, forgotten Chrysler. So I’d appreciate a book recommendation for a history of those corporations or their founders. I know tons about the cars, but I need to get to know the people and the companies a bit better.

Can you help?

Thanks,

Dave

 

The only book I have is "My Years With General Motors" by Alfred P. Sloan Jr. copyright 1963.

A book about Billy Durant, the Dodge Brothers, or Walter P. Chrysler could be a good read.

Have you read "My Forty Years with Ford" by Charles Sorensen?

 

I'm sure there are specific books that deal in depth with each subject you have mentioned.

I get my history fix from Automile Quarterly. Luckily my local library keeps a few on the shelf. I check for "new ones" there before anything else. I just borrowed volume 48, number 3, this issue highlights the GM Jubilee for instance.

Are you interested in buying or borrowing the type of books you mentioned?

 

The book written by Lee Iacoca is a good one, I lent mine out and it must have grown feet. Its not on the shelf. The history of the Dodge Brothers is good, as is the history of Rolls Royce, Packard, Hudson and others.

 

You can buy Lee Iacocca books for cheap on places like Amazon and Half.com, there are 5-10 great Ford Motor Company history books out there as well. For muscle cars history the best one albeit with a Pontiac slant is the Jim Wangers book.

 

At the bottom of the Wikipedia pages they have a list of related books of the subject.

 

Two books I recently finished, "Glory Days - when horsepower & passion ruled Detroit". Forward by Jim Wangers, great insight into GM during the early musclecar years and
"Ford - The men & the machine". Pretty much the life story of Henry Ford and everything he was involved in right from the beginning. A slow read but a wealth of information from the back alley deals right into the corporate tower.

 

I don't know any about GM or Chrysler but the "Ford Motor Co the First 100 years" has a lot of great information

 

I kind of think of General Motors as the Roman Empire. The 1908-1942 period is the Republic, the 1946-1973 period is the Empire, the 1973-2006 period is when they moved the capital to Constantinople and left the Western Empire to the barbarians, and this is the sacking of Constantinople by the Turks.

You guys have listed some good books about the Empire period (especially the Delorean book, I’d like to read that), but I’m interested in the Republic period, when they were still building the company by consolidating a lot of little manufacturers into one big corporation.

I am interested primarily in books I can borrow for the library, though if I like them enough, I’ll likely buy.

-David

 

Dave,
Theres a neat (but not too in depth) book called GM: the first 75 years. It's an internally produced book from about 1986, I got my copy from my Grandpa who retired from HydraMatic.
If you're ever down this way I'll let ya borrow it.
It's mostly about the cars, but touches on GM Diesel/EMD/Holden, etc.

JK

 

This link is from the library in Caro, Mi.
Searched for automotive history.
Some are books some are videos, might be a start...
http://valcat.vlc.lib.mi.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?npp=10&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=cro&aspect=basic&term=automotive+history&index=.GW&uindex=&oper=&ri=1&session=1G4E2608R1741.2162&menu=search&aspect=basic&npp=10&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=cro&ri=1&source=%7E%21horizon&sort=3100015&limit=LA01+%3D+la_eng&go_sort_limit.x=10&go_sort_limit.y=7#focus

 

Thanks, I do know what my library has, I was more interested in what people have read and liked.

-Dave

 

OH, thought you were startin' from scratch

 

The age of the Internet, the search engine on websites like www.amazon.com and www.bookfinder4u.com are the easiest ways to locate books, some of these old automotive related titles sell for less than a dollar plus average $3.50 S / H.

It's not hard to locate this stuff if you use the tools the computer provides.

 

Willaim Durant is by far the most interesting. Alfred Sloan was a straight laced, boring bean counter. GM was built by Billy Durant, but, He wound up running a bowling alley in Flint MI.

 

Are you chiding me, James Maxwell?

I asked what books people not recommended, not what is available. I respect the opinions on the HAMB as there are some real automotive historians out there. I was hoping to separate the wheat from the chaff, as my preliminary searches did turn up quite a few titles.

-Dave

 

No drama here, but half the fun of buying books for cheap is discovering some great deals, I've bought hundreds, the other trick is to look for them on EBay and then purchase them for much less on the websites I mentioned.

I could rattle off all kinds of ISBN numbers for you, but it sounds like a lot of work and at the moment I'm not in the mood.

 

I agree with Hotrod1940, Billy Durant was the most interesting and was friend with or had dealings with just about every big name in the early Auto industry. he made a lot of people rich but came out near the bottom for himself. The name of one of the books about him is "The Match Maker" I believe.

 

If you want a book about Walter P. Chrysler then get yourself a copy of "Chrysler - The Life and Times of an Automotive Genius", by Vincent Curcio.

Here's the Amazon.com link -
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Vincent%20Curcio&page=1

I've read it twice, and it's a fantastic book - you will love it.

 

I would think there would be a fair amount of featured articles in Automobile Quarterly. If there is an on line index you can pick back issues up on ebay.

 

Keeping in line with automakers in trouble, also check out...

More Than They Promised - The Studebaker Story (Thomas E. Bonsall)

Packard - A History of the Motor Car and the Company (Beverly Kimes)