Description
Book SynopsisThe Color Line and the Assembly Line tells a new story of the impact of mass production on society. Global corporations, based originally in the United States, have played a part in making gender and race everywhere. Focusing on Ford Motor Company's rise to become the largest, richest, and most influential corporation in the world, The Color Line and the Assembly Line takes on the traditional story of Fordism. Contrary to popular thought the assembly line was perfectly compatible with all manner of racial practice in the United States, Brazil, and South Africa. Each country's distinct forms of racial hierarchies in the 1920s and 1930s informed Ford's often divisive labor processes. Confirming racism as an essential component in the creation of global capitalism, Elizabeth Esch also adds an important new lesson showing how local patterns gave capitalism its distinctive features.
Trade Review"In this exciting contribution to the historiography of the Ford Motor Company, Elizabeth D. Esch reframes a familiar Michigan history topic within historians' rich conversations about race and empire." * Michigan Historical Review *
"Provides a useful starting point for examining Ford’s adaptation of its labor practices to differing national contexts. Historians and historically minded social scientists will find this book to be an accessible, informative, and engaging contribution to the literature about Ford." * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *
"Esch provides a valuable study that shows how racism was an essential part of the creation of global capitalism." * Journal of American History *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction • The Color Line and the Assembly Line
1 • Ford Goes to the World; the World Comes to Ford
2 • From the Melting Pot to the Boiling Pot: Fascism and the Factory-State at the River Rouge Plant in the 1920s
3 • Out of the Melting Pot and into the Fire: African Americans and the Uneven Ford Empire at Home
4 • Breeding Rubber, Breeding Workers: From Fordlandia to Belterra
5 • “Work in the Factory Itself”: Fordism, South Africanism, and Poor White Reform
Conclusion • From the One Best Way to The Way Forward to One Ford—Still Uneven, Still Unequal
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
