Product Spotlight: A Savage Factory: An Eyewitness Account of the Auto Industrys Self-Destruction

There's been plenty of speculation and debate about what happened to Detroit, and Robert J. Dewar offers some ideas on how it started in “A Savage Factory: An Eyewitness Account of the Auto Industry's Self-Destruction” (AuthorHouse, Bloomington, IN, 2009, ISBN: 978-1-4389-5294-9 hc).   |   Savage Factory Cover Dewar worked in Ford's Sharonville, Ohio, automatic transmission plant in the mid to late 1970s and weaves an interesting read straight from the shop floor about the us-versus-them mentality and corporate culture of Ford and the union. It's told in the language of the shop. It might bring back bad memories for some and find others trying to date things based on popular culture and newsworthy event references. You might think Dewar is a scathing anti-Detroiter, but we don't find that to be the case. Rather he does a balanced job outlining where things started to go wrong, with notes and documentation that make a compelling argument, in the hopes it will wake up the industry that might return to its former glory. Like most employees, he drove a Ford product at Sharonville (and many of them checked to make sure their transmission came from Livonia, not Sharonville), but today, long out of Ford's employ, he still drives a Ford truck and has an all-American fleet.