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The American Automobile Industry's Road From Glory To Disaster
Random House
January 2010
On Sale: January 5, 2010
320 pages
ISBN: 1400068630
EAN: 9781400068630
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
This is the epic saga of the American automobile industry's
rise and demise, a compelling story of hubris, denial,
missed opportunities, and self-inflicted wounds that
culminates with the president of the United States ushering
two of Detroit's Big Three car companies—once proud symbols
of prosperity—through bankruptcy. The cost to American
taxpayers topped $100 billion—enough to buy every car and
truck sold in America in the first half of 2009. With
unprecedented access, Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Ingrassia
takes us from factory floors to small-town dealerships to
Detroit's boardrooms to the inner sanctums of the White
House. He reveals why President Barack Obama personally
decided to save Chrysler when many of his advisors opposed
the idea. Ingrassia provides the dramatic story behind
Obama's dismissal of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner and the
angry reaction from GM's board—the same people who had
watched idly while the company plunged into penury. In
Crash Course, Ingrassia answers the big questions: Was
Detroit's self-destruction inevitable? What were the key
turning points? Why did Japanese automakers manage American
workers better than the American companies themselves did?
He also describes dysfunctional corporate cultures (even as
GM's market share plunged, the company continued business as
usual) and Detroit's perverse system of "inverse layoffs"
(which allowed union members to invoke seniority to avoid
work). Along the way we meet Detroit's frustrated reformers
and witness the wrenching decisions that Ford executives had
to make to avoid GM's fate.Informed by Ingrassia's
twenty-five years of experience covering the auto industry
for The Wall Street Journal, and showing an appreciation for
Detroit's profound influence on our country's society and
culture, Crash Course is a uniquely American and deeply
instructive story, one not to be missed.
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