The Flivver King: A Story of Ford-America

Ford has now experimented with eight different automobile models. One day, he announces that the only model his plant will make is the Model T, “a single cheap car for the masses” (41). The Model T is not beautiful, but it is practical, and Ford is convinced that “the mass of the American people [are] like himself, caring very little about beauty and a great deal about use” (41). Despite the doubts of those around him, Ford buys land in a Detroit suburb and begins to construct the world’s largest automobile factory. He continues to reduce the price of his car each year, and sales increase. The factory makes a hundred cars a day, and Ford has an acute sense of his own power.

Ford builds a power plant, a steel plant, and forges for his factory; he plans to build his own mines, ships, and railroads as well. He hires a team of experts to perfect each aspect of the business, from the production of materials to accounting and advertising. Ford is determined not only to change Americans’ transportation habits, but also to “make them over into people like himself” (42): sober, hard-working, enamored of machinery, well-paid, thrifty, and each the owner of a Model T.