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From the Oscar-nominated filmmaker comes a complex and sweeping historical novel about Henry Ford — the Elon Musk of his day — and the violent rise of the Ford Motor Company in 1920-30's Detroit, featuring strikes, riots, misbegotten jungle expeditions, and the story behind Ford's private army...
As the Depression hits Detroit, Henry Ford — who doesn't like change — finds himself having to confront the crash of the economy, which he blames on the Jews. But his mass firings and severe salary reductions lead to an uproar, including massive hunger protests at the factory. It also heightens ethnic tension in the city, because Ford, who resisted hiring African-Americans in the first place, lays them all off first. Can his private army — consisting of ex-cons and gangsters from the Chicago Mob — keep things under control?
And what about the rubber plantation he's trying to build in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, so that he can wrest control of the rubber industry for tires? It's off to a disastrous start, with a food riot by the indigenous employees that led to Ford having to borrow the Brazilian army. There also seems to be a blight affecting the thousands of newly planted rubber trees ...
John Sayles presents this epic saga with a cast of characters featuring many of the real historical figures involved, including fascinating character studies of Henry Ford, his beleaguered son Edsel, the ex-cop running Ford's huge, private "security" force, Harry Bennett, and appearances by union leader Walter Reuther and boxer Joe Louis. It is also a stirring portrayal of the people who toiled in the hyper-monotonous jobs of the factories in Detroit and the Brazilian plantation.
Piercing the image of one of our most vaunted historical figures, and bringing forth the brave and inspiring story of the people who actually built Ford's empire, Crucible is the kind of griping, revealing look at the American character that John Sayles has become famous for.
"Sayles offers a propulsive view into the era's rapacious capitalism and rapid social changes. This textured tale will resonate with readers concerned about workers' rights and corporate greed." —Publishers Weekly
"[T]he message is simple and potent: Unchecked corporate power is a path to the mistreatment of humans, but people have the capacity, together, to win back their dignity...well-researched." —Kirkus Reviews
"[A]n ambitious, polyphonic tale that captures America's industrial history through the panoramic lens of a social historian and the moral scrutiny of a dramatist...A veritable ecosystem of struggle and aspiration, Sayles' historical tale is a fierce, symphonic reckoning with the cost of American progress." —Booklist
This information about Crucible was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
John Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996). He has written eight novels, the most recent being Yellow Earth (2020) and Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade's Journey (2023), which was a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice.
Author Interview
Link to John Sayles's Website
Name Pronunciation
John Sayles: sails
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