Books with author Steve Watts

How a Michigan farm boy became the richest man in America is a classic, almost mythic tale, but never before has Henry Ford’s outsized genius been brought to life so vividly as it is in this engaging and superbly researched biography. The real Henry Ford was a tangle of contradictions. He set off the consumer revolution by producing a car affordable to the masses, all the while lamenting the moral toll exacted by consumerism. He believed in giving his workers a living wage, though he was entirely opposed to union labor. He had a warm and loving relationship with his wife, but sired a son with another woman. A rabid anti-Semite, he nonetheless embraced African American workers in the era of Jim Crow. Uncovering the man behind the myth, situating his achievements and their attendant controversies firmly within the context of early twentieth-century America, Watts has given us a comprehensive, illuminating, and fascinating biography of one of America’s first mass-culture celebrities.

How a Michigan farm boy became the richest man in America is a classic, almost mythic tale, but never before has Henry Ford’s outsized genius been brought to life so vividly as it is in this engaging and superbly researched biography. The real Henry Ford was a tangle of contradictions. He set off the consumer revolution by producing a car affordable to the masses, all the while lamenting the moral toll exacted by consumerism. He believed in giving his workers a living wage, though he was entirely opposed to union labor. He had a warm and loving relationship with his wife, but sired a son with another woman. A rabid anti-Semite, he nonetheless embraced African American workers in the era of Jim Crow. Uncovering the man behind the myth, situating his achievements and their attendant controversies firmly within the context of early twentieth-century America, Watts has given us a comprehensive, illuminating, and fascinating biography of one of America’s first mass-culture celebrities.

Henry Ford, a major architect of modern America, has lived on in the imagination of his fellow citizens as an enduring figure of fascination, an inimitable individual, a controversial personality, and a social visionary from the moment his Model T brought the automobile to the masses and triggered the consumer revolution. But never before has his outsized genius been brought to life so vividly as by Steven Watts in this major new biography. Watts, the author of the much acclaimed The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, has produced a superbly researched study of a man who was a bundle of contradictions. Ford was the entrepreneur who first made the automobile affordable but who grew skeptical of consumerism’s corrosive impact on moral values, an employer who insisted on a living wage for his workers but stridently opposed unions, who established the assembly line but worried about its effect on the work ethic, who welcomed African Americans to his company in the age of Jim Crow but was a rabid anti-Semite. He was the private man who had a warm, loving marriage while siring a son with a mistress; a father who drove his heir, Edsel, so relentlessly that it contributed to his early death; a folksy social philosopher and at one time, perhaps, the most popular figure in America, who treated his workers so harshly that they turned against him; creator of the largest, most sophisticated factory in the world who preferred spending time in his elaborate re-creation of a nineteenth-century village; and the greatest businessman of his age who haplessly lost control of his own company in his declining years.Watts poignantly shows us how a Michigan farm boy from modest circumstances emerged as one of America’s richest men and one of its first mass-culture celebrities, one who became a folk hero to millions of ordinary citizens because of his support of high wages and material abundance for everyday workers and yet also excited the admiration of figures as diverse as Vladimir Lenin and Adolf Hitler, John D. Rockefeller and Woodrow Wilson. Disclosing the man behind the myth and situating his achievements and controversies firmly within the context of early twentieth-century America, Watts has given us a comprehensive, illuminating biography of an American icon.

Many ‘fairy-stories’ relate a fanciful series of events that are often exaggerated and frankly unbelievable. This series allows you to find out what really happened… In this case in "Humpty Dumpty" find out why the story of this sad egg includes the line, "I'm not an angel but I am a sprout!" The farmer's wife may have cut off the tails of the "Three 'Blind' Mice" but what really happened and where do plates and pianos appear in the tale? Intrigued? The solution friends is one 'add to basket' tab away!

Many fairy-stories relate a fanciful series of events that are often exaggerated and frankly unbelievable. “The Real Story” series allows you to find out what really happened…In “The Three Billy Goats Gruff’” we reveal the true sequence of events, which don’t reflect as well on Little Goat Gruff and even Middle Goat Gruff as inaccurate re-tellings of the story might have you believe.In drama described “The Grand Old Duke of York’” we find out fishermen from Scarborough help the anxious Grand Old Duke repel the forces of The Grand Young Duke of Oldham and The Grand Middle-Aged Duke of Newcastle.

He doesn't know it but Simon's mum Mary is a spy. "A bit like 007, except that her code name was 012A, which wasn’t as catchy and her work was definitely not glamourous. Just very dangerous." Normally Mary keeps Simon and her husband Andrew safely unaware of her precarious profession. One day everything goes completely wrong and Simon unwittingly becomes the target of several spy networks, while Andrew arrives home with revolvers sticking into his back. With everything working against her Mary has to try to save her husband and her son.

One of the biggest challenges facing the world today is keeping people healthy. Disease, starvation, and war are major problems that people struggle with every day. Readers learn about these problemsfrom eating disorders to AIDSand also learn what is being done to conquer them. Doctors, humanitarians, and ordinary people are working hard to make the world a healthier place, and readers discover how they can do their part to help them.