The Flivver King by Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair is a name I remembered from college as the author of “The Jungle”, a book written in 1906 that exposed the terrible conditions of the Chicago meat packing industry.  He died in 1968 at the age of 90, and left a legacy of over 90 books and some very incisive writing on our political and economic history.

One such example is “The Flivver King”, a fictional biography of Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company and an early leading industrialist.  Fictional, because Upton writes about Ford and also a fictional person who works for Ford from the beginning of Ford’s career.  This is a device of parallel lives which Sinclair often uses in his writing, to provide a contrast between the opportunities both men have and the choices that they make. 

Sinclair gives a vivid picture of what life was like in America at the end of the century, when different inventors were hard at work inventing a “horseless carriage”, the early name for automobile.  Before Social Security, the working class of people depended on the company that employed them – if they got sick or were injured, it was up to the company to decide if they got help or not. 

We see Henry Ford climbing up the ladder of success, by his perseverance, his engineering ability, and his sharpness in knowing what the public wants.  We see Abner Shutt, his employee, working hard in Ford’s factory and feeling proud that he has a job there.  When hard times hit, as in the Depression, Abner is laid off and along with thousands of others, tries to find some other job, no matter what the paycheck.

Sinclair illustrates the invisible division between rich and poor.  Shutt has initiative, but while it is rewarded early in his career, it doesn’t keep him from getting laid off.  Sinclair shows us how Ford’s accumulation of wealth gradually separates him from others, from having bodyguards and professional spies, to being surrounded by people interested in his money, not himself.  Some critics find Sinclair’s characters are not well rounded. Yet the reader can identify with their wants and their needs, and that is really all the writer wants you to do.

Sinclair paints the conflict between the labor advocates and big business as pretty grim, and by all accounts it was. It’s worth reading “The Flivver King”, just for a lesson in how to succeed in business (make it your number one priority), as well as an account of what you should try to avoid when you get to the top. 

The book is here in our catalog.

Gung Ho (DVD) 1986 w/ Michael Keaton, Mimi Rogers, & Gedde Watanabe

Rust-belt America circa 1985. Even if no one's owning up to it, the heyday of American manufacturing is deteriorating. Not only are production methods outmoded, profit margins are declining as buyers and markets shift their interests overseas. Though circular reasoning might pin the problem on an insupportable American labor-force, there’s obviously more to the situation...Nowhere is the labor crisis more evident than Hadleyville, U.S.A. where a defunct automotive factory has left people jobless and hopeless until news of a new --foreign--contractor’s potential investment in the town raises spirits. Needing a labor representative to negotiate with corporation bigwigs, 'working joe' Hunt Stevenson is given the responsibility of meeting (and subsequently partnering) with the head office, even as he's totally clueless about all things Japanese and has even less managerial business sense. An insecure but optimistic Hunt nonetheless plows ahead with positive ambitions, delivering high-minded promises at both ends of the corporate spectrum in a desperate effort to make everyone happy. Only too late does Hunt realize how his shaky bargaining has endangered not only his livelihood, but the well-being of the hundreds of fellow workers as his lofty words just aren't panning out into like production numbers. Fortunately, Hunt's not alone in his trouble as he's paired with Oishi, his Japanese supervisor and cohort who'll be in worse trouble than Hunt is if the factory fails.

This movie was released to mixed reviews, drawing criticism for its weak supporting cast and pedestrian script. Yet it still merits attention nowadays for its intimate portrayal of international business relations at a time when the economic balance of power was shifting. Revealing the often grim underpinnings of mergers and acquisitions, the film observes the culture divide between East and West in very plain terms of labor habits, individual vs. group dynamics and project management. Michael Keaton as Hunt gave a great performance as the typical worker-friendly leader in an American work environment trying (and failing miserably) to embrace the Japanese mode of standards-driven performance. (DVD GUNG)