Ford Goes to the World; the World Comes to Ford

As the workers of the world came to the United States and to Detroit, Ford went into the world. This chapter details the massive global expansion of the Ford Motor Company that was made possible by the changes in the labor regime and the patterns of social reproduction of immigrant workers in Ford’s Highland Park plant. In the Highland Park years, Ford managers bossed—and the “sociologists” he employed molded—immigrant workers thought to be of multiple European “races.” They were required to participate in Americanization programs that included learning to speak English and professing allegiance to new values on and off of the job.