Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate: Amazon.ca: Neil Baldwin: Books

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

From Publishers Weekly

The strength of this biography lies in context: by emphasizing Ford's background, influences and the world around the auto manufacturer, Baldwin (executive director of the National Book Foundation and author of Edison: Inventing the Century, etc.) brings a fresh approach to what has long been known about one of America's most famous anti-Semites. In the book's first part, Baldwin focuses on the climate of intellectual anti-Semitism that Ford experienced as a child and young adult and how these likely shaped his views about Jews. By the end of WWI, "Jews hatred was now an entrenched, permanent stain on Ford's psyche," which consistently teetered on the brink of sanity. Ford, who was raised on a farm, believed that Jews were responsible for the evils of modern cities and America's interventionist foreign policy, even as he remained friends with individual Jews. And as Baldwin disturbingly shows, Ford also put his twisted ideals into action by creating an anti-Semitic newspaper, the Dearborn Independent. (In this way, Ford was unlike Thomas Edison, whom Baldwin describes as a passive anti-Semite.) But Baldwin is not content to depict Ford's anti-Semitism and his cadre of like-minded people he also describes attempts to curb Ford's effect on society. After a lawsuit by a Jew maligned in the Independent, Ford eventually apologized with the help of Jewish organizations (whether or not that apology was sincere remains an open question). As he does elsewhere in the book, Baldwin probes the story behind this apology. His concise look at an organized American Jewry beginning to flex its muscles makes this excellent biography a tale of changing American ethnic relations. Illus. (Nov.)Forecast: The Jewish audience is a lock for this, but it should also appeal more broadly to students of American history and inter-ethnic relations.

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4.2 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Protocols of The Elders of Zion, May 27 2004

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protocols (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production Of Hate (Paperback)

Henry Ford was a great White American hero, and Neil Baldwin is a John 8:44 jew.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Ask yourself these questions, April 27 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production Of Hate (Paperback)

Is Baldwin a Jew?

How it then possible for this text to impartially represent the truth?

When listening or reading it is vitally important to understand the motives of the source before forming your own opinion.

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4.0 out of 5 stars The Last To Know....., Jan 15 2004

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Julie Jordan Scott "Writer, Life Coach - Owne... (Bakersfield, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production Of Hate (Paperback)

I think I was the last person in the United States to become aware of Henry Ford's anti-semitism.

I make it a practice to study one person a month and I decided as a business builder, Henry Ford was worthy of my attention and study.

I found this particular biography and thought, "OK, this has a completely different approach, let's try it on."

I found Baldwin's passion and zealousness for his topic and his particular slant to be very powerful. As is frequent in such writing, it also became a barrier because every action Ford took became, through Baldwin's eyes, a matter of Ford being the Personification of Evil.

I am not condoning Ford's thoughts, beliefs or behaviors. I am believing that not every action he took was a result of some undercurrent of Anti Semitism.

That said, this book is worth a read due to the level of research Baldwin has done both in this biography and the biography of one of Ford's friends and role models (and less rabidly Anti-Semitic although there was some there) in Thomas Alva Edison.

I just had this thought: I wonder how many business leaders remain staunchly racist... yet it has gone deeply underground in this age.

I wonder how many business (and political leaders) continue to harbor less than transformed thought?

Something to think about... and continue to stand against.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Well worth a read
Neil Baldwin's "Henry Ford and the Jews" is a compelling look at how a genius at one thing --- the mass production of a good automobile --- could become such a dangerous buffoon... Read more