Ford, 1903-2003: The European History (review)

This work is the result of a conference held in Bordeaux to examine the history of the Ford Motor Company (FMC) in Europe. No fewer than twenty-eight authors, all of whom are well known in their respective fields, have contributed to these two impressive and weighty volumes. The first volume covers the general outline of Ford's operations in Europe, which was always considered a major market for Ford vehicles. Britain and Germany, as the two headquarters of the organization, naturally get a lot of attention, and it is most striking to see how vacillating the FMC has been over the years about the way Europe should be covered. Frequent changes of policy abound, some initiated from Detroit, others from Europe, some caused by financial stringencies, others by moves of the competition or even political reasons, such as the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), which made Ford more dependent on its German branch to the detriment of the much older one in Britain. It is, of course, hardly possible to discuss every one of the twenty-nine chapters in the two volumes, but I will select a few that have impressed me most. Elizabeth Adkins, archivist of FMC, outlines the history of the archives of both the American parent company and the several European branches. The latter seem to be dispersed and much less complete than the American records. Generally, Ford has been open about its past, as witnessed by the company project, started in 1998, to collect all possible information about the performance of Ford Germany during the Nazi period. The material and the concluding report were made public in 2001, a move that brought positive publicity for the company.

"Fordism" in all its ramifications is another topic discussed in volume 1 by Mira Wilkins (chapter 2) in her essay on Ford as a multinational company and by Michel Freyssenet (chapter 3) in his essay on the "Fordian model" in Europe. Both are well written and very much to the point, but personally I liked Wilkins's clear and concise definitions best. Steven Tolliday admirably covers the history of Ford since its inception as the FMC and manages to give a clear picture of the many ways that Ford adapted its strategies to changing circumstances. The difference with General Motors, which sought to broaden its base in Europe by taking over existing successful companies such as Opel and Vauxhall, while Ford set up subsidiaries from scratch, is striking. GÈrard Bordenave (chapter 6) ably continues Tolliday's story to 2003, with the change of corporate emphasis from England to Germany, but with a lot of unnecessary repetition of the earlier history.

Hubert Bonin, in his review chapter on Ford Germany during the Nazi-period, draws heavily on the report, mentioned above, prepared by FMC itself and states that he was unable to add much to that excellent work. However, he does put different accents on several of the conclusions and indicates some aspects that have been omitted. Thomas Fetzer, in his essay (chapter 9) about industrial relations, confines himself to Britain and Germany in the postwar years and refers the reader to existing literature about the earlier troubled years in Britain. But in these same volumes, other contributors do cover the early years, despite the existence of good, modern studies on their subjects, and in a book such as this I missed a succinct survey of labor relations before 1940. I would also want to hear more about the same subject in other countries where Ford set up assembly plants. Problems between Ford and the trade unions in the large Genk plant are fully covered in the chapter by Thierry Grosbois on Belgium, but earlier relations are mostly left in the dark. Industrial relations in Spain should be interesting, as they were a major factor in the setting up of a big Ford plant in Valencia in the...