[Peace-discuss] Anyone want this book?

[John W.]

On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 6:29 AM Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
wrote:

Are there any markings in the books that indicate their ownership by
> someone who lived in Champaign County?
>

No, this is a paperback reprint of very recent vintage, pristine condition,
no markings whatsoever.  All four volumes in one book, really small print.

It's interesting that there's not the usual page that tells the publisher,
the copyright date, etc.  No one is wanting to take "credit" for it other
than Henry Ford himself.  There's no Foreword, no Introduction explaining
the history of the articles, no nothing.  It's almost as if Henry Ford came
back from the dead and self-published the book so that we would be sure to
read it.



> My wife directs the Champaign County Historical Archive which is housed at
> the Urbana Free Library. She might be interested if we can document the
> ownership of the books by someone who lived in Champaign County. There's
> stuff in the archives about the Klan in Champaign County, showing how
> "upstanding members" of Champaign County society were members. There's
> stuff in the archives about sundown towns in Champaign County, towns where
> black people were not welcome under threat after sundown.
>
> So maybe they'd be interested in a historical record of how someone in
> Champaign County owned and was perhaps influenced by *The International
> Jew, *which was a collection of Ford's antisemitic articles from *The
> Dearborn Independent, *and which was cited by leading Nazis, including
> Hitler himself, as a significant inspiration to them, including at the
> Nuremberg trials.
>
> Ford was a hugely influential character in American history; it might be
> useful to try to understand him better.
>
> Ford was a passionate anti-Semite and fiercely anti-union, even compared
> to other industrialists at the time; Ford was the last automaker to sign a
> contract with the UAW, and Ford did everything he could to sabotage the
> negotiations, even threatening to break up the company rather than accept a
> UAW contract; reportedly he relented after his wife threatened to divorce
> him if he broke up the company.
>
> On the other hand, Ford was genuinely concerned about the well-being of
> workers, not only in his own company, but in the economy as a whole; he
> reduced work hours and increased wages compared to other employers, partly
> because he believed this would increase productivity, partly because he
> believed that workers should have more leisure so they could buy more
> stuff. The idea of the Model T was to build a car that workers could afford
> to buy, so that owning and driving a car wouldn't be a luxury exclusive to
> the super-rich. Ford hired black workers, more than others at the time. And
> Ford was a pacifist. He believed that war was substantially caused by war
> profiteers who sought to get rich from war production [we don't need to
> look beyond the U.S. role in the Saudi war in Yemen to see how right he was
> about that.] He also believed that war could be substantially prevented by
> ensuring widespread prosperity, an idea that is now commonplace.
>
> I think we're better off overall acknowledging that all these ideas
> existed in the same person and had huge influence for both good and evil;
> and how the good ideas Ford had - and the fact that they were too rare at
> the time - helped propel and give currency to the evil ideas.
>

All very true and I'm glad you wrote all this stuff up in such a succinct
fashion, Robert.  But this particular book is only about The International
Jew, The World's Foremost Problem.  There's a wealth of what purports to be
research and historical detail in it.  I'm surprised Ford had the time to
research and write it, what with running the Ford corporation and all.
Maybe he had a ghost writer.



> The parallels to Trump are obvious. Many liberals are horrified by the
> currency of Trump - as they should be - without taking responsibility for
> how the failures of American liberalism helped give rise to Trump, by
> creating a vacuum which Trump could fill. If we want Trumpism to fail, we
> have to fill the vacuum with something else that appeals to some of the
> people who were seduced by Trump, not simply denounce Trump.
>
>
> ===
>
> Robert Reuel Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> (202) 448-2898 x1
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 3:52 AM John W. via Peace-discuss <
> peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> Before I throw it in the trash, it occurred to me to wonder if any of you
>> ultra-AWARE folks might want this book for your historical archives.  I
>> found it among the free books on the bookshelf outside the Cancer Center at
>> Carle.  I don't ordinarily throw books away, but I make an exception for
>> books like this one:
>>
>> "The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem"  The Complete 4
>> Volumes by Henry Ford.
>>
>> Let me know if you want it.
>>
>> John Wason
>>
>
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