Henry Ford
The Visionary Humanist
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/eph.v20i2.81Keywords:
humanism, capitalism, Henry Ford, Andrew CarnegieAbstract
This paper contains (1) an outlined portrait of Henry Ford, warts and all, (2) a summary of his ‘humane capitalism’, the importance of which has been largely forgotten nowadays, and (3) a suggestion of its relevance to today’s economic problems. Ford’s importance as a humanist becomes obvious when his view of capitalism is compared with that of his predecessor, Andrew Carnegie. Ford reacted implicitly against Carnegie’s draconian capitalism in which poverty was seen as an unavoidable necessity. In Carnegie’s view, wages could be lowered at an employer’s whim. Ford overturned that view and made increasing wage levels the norm not the exception. He was in fact directly responsible for the development of the consumer society during the twentieth century.
References
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Wolf, Leon. 1965. Lockout: The Story of the Homestead Strike of 1892. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
Bryan, Ford Richardson. 1993. Henry’s Lieutenants. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press. Carnegie, Andrew. 1900. The Gospel of Wealth, and Other Timely Essays, ed. Edward C. Kirkland. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962.
Carnegie, Andrew. 1920. Autobiography. London: Constable & Co.
Ford, Henry. 1922. The International Jew – The World’s Foremost Problem. Dearborn, Mich.: Dearborn Publishing Company.
Ford, Henry. 1922. “Being a Selection from ‘Mr. Ford’s Page’,” in the Dearborn Independent. Dearborn, Mich.: Dearborn Publishing Company.
Ford, Henry. 1922. My Life and Work, in collaboration with Samuel Crowther. London: William Heinemann.
Ford, Henry. 1926. Today and Tomorrow, in collaboration with Samuel Crowther. London: William Heinemann.
Ford, Henry. 1928. My Philosophy of Industry, interview by Fay Leone Faurote. New York: Forum Publishing Co.
Ford, Henry. 1931. Moving Forward, in collaboration with Samuel Crowther. London: William Henemann.
Harvey, George. 1928. Henry Clay Frick: The Man. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Huxley, Aldous. 1932. Brave New World. London: Penguin, 1964.
James, William. 1902. The Varieties of Religious Experience. London: Penguin, 1985.
Josephson, Matthew. Edison. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1961.
Keller, Edward. 1993. Mr. Ford – What Have You Done? Henry Ford’s Views on Economics. Qulin, Misouri: Keaton Keller.
Lacey, Robert. 1986. Ford: The Men and the Machine. London: William Heinemann.
Lamont-Brown, Raymond. 2005. Carnegie: ‘The Richest Man in the World’. Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing.
Lewis, David L. 1976. The Public Image of Henry Ford. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press.
Nevins, Allan, and Frank Ernest Hill. 1954. Ford: The Times, the Man, the Company. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Nevins, Allan, and Frank Ernest Hill. 1957. Ford: Expansion and Challenge, 1915–1933. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Nevins, Allan, and Frank Ernest Hill. 1962. Ford: Decline and Rebirth, 1933–1962. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Nye, David E. 1979. Henry Ford: “Ignorant Idealist.” Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press.
Sorenson, Charles E., with Samuel T. Williamson. 1957. Forty Years With Ford. London: Jonathan Cape.
Stern, Philip Van Doren. 1955. Tin Lizzie. New York: Simon and Shuster.
Sward, Keith. 1948. The Legend of Henry Ford. New York: Rinehart & Co.
Trine, Ralph Waldo. 1899. In Tune with the Infinite. London: G. Bell and Sons, 1916.
Trine, Ralph Waldo. 1930. The Power That Wins, Henry Ford and Ralph Waldo Trine in an intimate talk on Life, the Inner Things of the Mind and Spirit and the Inner Powers and Forces that make for Achievement. London: Williams & Norgate.
Viereck, George Sylvester. 1930. “The Metaphysics of Henry Ford,” in Glimpses of the Great (London: Duckworth), pp. 342–355.
Wolf, Leon. 1965. Lockout: The Story of the Homestead Strike of 1892. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
Published
2013-11-06
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Sinclair, A. (2013). Henry Ford: The Visionary Humanist. Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism, 20(2), 81-103. https://doi.org/10.1558/eph.v20i2.81
