{"product_id":"crucible-isbn-9781685892746","title":"Crucible","description":"\u003cb\u003eNow in paperback: from the Oscar-nominated filmmaker comes a complex and sweeping  historical novel about Henry Ford — the Elon Musk of his day — and his  attempt to rule not only an automotive empire but the rambunctious city  of Detroit. It is an epic tale ranging from the 1920s through the second  World War, featuring violent labor disputes, misbegotten jungle  expeditions, a tragic race riot, and the gestapo tactics of Ford’s  private army . . .\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlready the gateway for illegal Canadian liquor during Prohibition, the  Motor City becomes a crucible for American class conflict during the  Great Depression, with an army of laid off Ford workers drifting into  the ranks of the burgeoning union movement — Henry Ford's worst  nightmare.  To keep the hundreds of thousands still employed by him in  thrall, the man who was formerly 'America's favorite tycoon' recruits  black laborers migrating from the deep South to serve as 'strike  insurance', and gives Harry Bennett, pugnacious as he is diminutive,  free reign over the legion of barroom brawlers and ex-cons who make up  the company’s 'Security Department'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Model T mogul has also  bought a sizable chunk of Brazil's Amazonian rainforest, vowing to grow  his own rubber for tires, but stubbornly refusing to include a botanist  in his troop of would-be jungle tamers. As a series of biological  plagues descend on the Fordlandia plantation, the racial melting pot  he has created in Detroit begins to boil over, and not even the Sage of  Dearborn can control the forces that have been unleashed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe  novel's cast — Ford workers black and white and their families, young  radicals, cynical newsmen, gangsters, Brazilian rubber tappers, cameos  from boxer Joe Louis and muralist Diego Rivera — create the tapestry of  differing points of view that John Sayles has become famous for, the  events portrayed fundamental to the country we live in today.\u003cb\u003eA Southern California Independent Bookstore Best Seller\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Rich, Enthralling. . . rambunctious. . .\" -- \u003cb\u003eAlida Becker\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e, The New York Times\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A sprawling, mural-like novel that engages with the process, the spirit and especially the conflicts of breakneck industrial progress ... [with] a dynamic vision of American history.\" --\u003cb\u003e Sam Sacks,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\". . . an 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.\"\u003ci\u003e -- \u003cb\u003eBooklist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\". . . 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.\"\u003ci\u003e -- \u003cb\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\". . .the 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. . .\" \u003ci\u003e-- \u003cb\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An epic tale focused on the legendary automobile tycoon Henry Ford.\" --\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e The Times (UK)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eJohn Sayles is an independent filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and once for the National Book Award. He has written eight novels, including, most recently, \u003ci\u003eJamie MacGillivray\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTo Save the Man.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe driver does not spare the whip.\u003c\/b\u003e Despite the rutted roads, the patches of unfrozen mud, the eddies of snow swirling up and over the windshield, he keeps his foot on one of the additions to the New Ford Car—a gas pedal—and tips the odometer past sixty a few times, all the while babbling the Company spiel—‘standard gearshift, four-wheel brakes, hydraulic shock absorbers, automatic windshield wiper’ and a host of lesser innovations having to do with things Smitty does not understand and does not wish to. He hears Breen from the Times making little gasping noises\u003cbr\u003ein the back seat, and is comforted to know somebody in the automobile is more terrified than he is. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“How’d you like it?” grins the young buck at the wheel when they careen back into the lot at the Engineering Laboratory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Son, you’ve made a Christian of me,” Smitty answers, then staggers to join the other inkslingers in their quest to grab a few quotables from the Woeful Prince and the aptly named Liebold. They’ve got Edsel surrounded, his back up against a spanking-new Tudor Sedan in what the Company handout says is ‘Niagara Blue.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mr. Ford—over here!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mr. Ford!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Give us a big smile—”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Look in the lens, Mr. Ford—”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“They say she’ll do sixty miles an hour, Mr. Ford—”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In reverse,” says the heir apparent, grinning, and the newsmen laugh. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Rumor has it,” calls Smitty, “that your dad wanted to just keep making\u003cbr\u003ethe Model T.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Sage of Dearborn is allegedly ‘out of town’ for this important sneak peek, a hint, perhaps, that he really did oppose the redesign as long as was fiscally possible, occasionally applying wrathful bootheel and lug wrench to the bodies of early prototypes. Yes, the Founder held out for a planetary transmission, whatever that is, and resented being forced to modify the brakes due to new government regulations, but Smitty figures he’s just a stubborn old cuss used to being right about everything.","brand":"Melville House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48532135837925,"sku":"NP9781685892746","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/crucible-isbn-9781685892746","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}