| The American Axis - Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the rise of the Third Reich (2003) |
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| Description |
| Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh have long been exalted as two of the greatest American icons of the twentieth century. From award-winning journalist Max Wallace comes groundbreaking and astonishing revelations about the poisonous effect these two so-called American heroes had on Western democracy. In his wide ranging investigation, Wallace goes further than any other historian to expose how Ford and Lindbergh-acting in league with the Nazis-almost brought democratic Europe to the verge of extinction. With unprecedented access to declassified FBI and military intelligence files, Wallace reveals how the close friendship and ideological bond between automotive pioneer Ford and aviator Lindbergh culminated in an abuse of power that helped strengthen Hitler's regime and undermined the Allied war effort. Wallace traces Henry Ford's ties to Nazi Germany back as far as the 1920s, presenting compelling evidence of a financial paper trail proving that Ford subsidized the rise to power of Adolph Hitler, who described Ford as "my inspiration." For the first time, the genesis of Ford's notorious Anti-Semitism is uncovered: The American Axis proves that Ford's private secretary and life-long confidante was a German spy, who channeled his employer's Jew-baiting crusades to further the cause of the Third Reich. Lindbergh's own anti-Semitism and white-Supremacist views captured the attention of the Nazis, who soon manipulated him in their clandestine Fifth Column efforts. As the first unauthorized biographer to gain access to the Lindbergh archives, Wallace paints a substantially more chilling portrait of Lindbergh's pre-war activities than any previous historian and produces new evidence that the Nazis secretly plotted to install Lindbergh as the leader of the movement to keep America out of World War Two. The most controversial corporate investigation since IBM and the Holocaust, the book reveals that the Ford Motor Company's military and political complicity in the Third Reich war effort was considerably stronger than the company has acknowledged and that a US Army post-war investigation concluded that the company had become "an arsenal of Nazism." Wallace disputes a recent internal investigation into the use of slave labor at Ford's German plant during World War II - which company officials claimed as a vindication of its wartime activities - and reveals that corporate President Edsel Ford was about to be indicted by the US government for "Trading With the Enemy" at the time of his 1943 death. The American Axis is not only a mesmerizing, cautionary tale, but a compelling historical exposé. |
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| Notes/Review |
| Slight water damage to back cover. Remainder mark on bottom of text block. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of the topics I've been giving a fair amount of thought to lately is Americans' tendency to hero-worship, particularly businessmen. We think folks who are successful in business are smarter than most, and are more deserving of accolade than those who are less successful, or aren't in the business world. Many feel Mitt Romney deserved to be president because he made a lot of money in business - he must be smarter. Similar sentiments are expressed about Donald Trump. In a 2002 survey, 85% of respondents said they admired Henry Ford. There is no doubt that Ford was a successful businessman. He was instrumental in the development of production line techniques and his products transformed transportation and the modern city. But the man was ignorant of history, was a raging anti-Semite, received the highest civilian decoration from Nazi Germany, refused to build engines for the RAF while his factory in Germany was mass producing trucks for the Wermacht. The American Axis goes to great lengths to detail the beliefs and actions of Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh, to influential men who were heroes of the 20's and 30's. The book is meticulously researched and tries to paint a fair picture of these men. Now, it's always fraught to judge people of other times by standards of our own, but I think Wallace does a good job of placing Ford's and Lindbergh's beliefs in the proper context. For example, other Americans received awards from Hitler. But those others returned their awards rather than hold them when America entered the war. Overall, an interesting look at these two icons. |