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Above: Henry Ford outside The Wayside Inn, c. late 1920s.
The Wayside Inn Collection.
Henry Ford was an American industrialist and the founder of the Ford Motor Company. He is best known for his pioneering work in the automobile industry and for developing the assembly line method of production, which revolutionized manufacturing and made the automobile accessible to the masses.
He was born on a farm in Springwells Township, Michigan, on July 30, 1863, to William and Mary Ford. He was the oldest of five children and grew up working on the family farm. Ford’s formal education ended in the eighth grade, and was supplemented by apprentice work in Detroit, Michigan. However, he was a voracious reader and taught himself a wide range of subjects, including mechanics and engineering. He also had a strong interest in agriculture.
Ford's early experiences on the farm and his self-education likely influenced his later work as an industrialist and inventor. His knowledge of agriculture and mechanics, as well as his resourcefulness and determination, contributed to his success in the automobile industry. Ford's lack of formal education may also have contributed to his unconventional views on a variety of subjects, including economics and politics.
Henry met his future wife, Clara Bryant, at a local dance and they were married in 1888. In 1891 he earned a job as an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company where he forged a close friendship with inventor Thomas Edison. In 1893, Henry and Clara visited the Chicago World’s Fair which heralded the age of invention and a rapid shift toward modernity nationwide. Traditionalists like Ford were wary that this change would dilute perceived American ideals. This fear, combined with apprehension about immigration’s introduction of new cultures to America troubled Ford. His concern about loss of American values is perhaps what drove his interest in creating museum villages, staged symbolic utopias outfitted with a combination of preserved and replica vernacular architecture, and fed his desire to collect items of everyday life and domestic arts, and associated technology.
From left to right: Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, Clara Ford, Mina Edison, and Henry Ford. Outside the Wayside Inn, c. August 1924. The Wayside Inn Collection.
Ford's embrace of the past is ironic, given the fact that he was a driving force behind the modern industrial world that overtook America's agricultural heritage. His mass production techniques revolutionized the way goods were manufactured and brought about a new era of modernity, yet he maintained a strong appreciation for traditional values and customs.
Ford was also known for his antisemitism, which he expressed in his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. In the 1920s, Ford used the newspaper to publish a series of articles that were critical of Jews and Jewish culture. These articles were later compiled into a book called The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem, which was widely distributed and had an influence on the development of Nazi ideology.
Ford's views on Jews were not unique at the time, and he was not the only prominent figure to express such views. However, his influence as a leading industrialist and the widespread distribution of his writings gave his views a level of credibility and helped to legitimize antisemitism in the eyes of many people.
Henry Ford receiving the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from Nazi officials, 1938. Courtesy of the Sudbury Historical Society.
Ford's influence on Nazi Germany is somewhat disputed, but it is clear that his views were well known in Germany and that his book was widely read there. Adolf Hitler was a fan of Ford and owned a copy of The International Jew, which he kept on his bedside table. Hitler is said to have admired Ford's ideas on race and industry, and he even awarded Ford the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest award that could be given to a foreigner, in 1938.
Sources
Sources
Burns, Ken. The U.S. and the Holocaust. United States: PBS, 2022.
“Henry Ford and Anti-Semitism: A Complex Story.” The Henry Ford. Accessed January 2, 2023.
https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-resources/popular-topics/henry-ford-and-anti-semitism-a-complex-story.
Link, Stefan. “Rethinking the Ford-Nazi Connection.” Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 49, no. Fall (2011): 135–50. https://doi.org/https://zeithistorische-forschungen.de/sites/default/files/medien/material/2009-2/Link_2011.pdf?language=en.
Mihm, Stephen. “Elon Musk Is Acting Like Henry Ford. Uh-Oh. .” Bloomberg, May 17, 2022. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-05-17/elon-musk-henry-ford-and-the-cost-of-stardom.
Sonkin, Rebecca. “Kanye West’s Antisemitism Is Bad for Business. Now How about Henry Ford?” The Washington Post, July 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/14/kyrie-irving-kanye-henry-ford-antisemitism/.
Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. 10 Questions for Henry Ford. Discussion between filmmaker Andy Kirshner and Spertus Institute’s Director of Jewish Studies, Dr. David Gottlieb. https://vimeo.com/794602311.
Watts, Steven. The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century. New York: Vintage Books, 2006.
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