Did you know Hitler had a portrait of Henry Ford in his private office? Well, on top of being an inveterate anti-Semite, Ford also rigged cross country car races! Ford may have been overall a very distasteful person, but Eric Moskowitz’s The Hardest, Longest Race is actually fun.
Moskowitz tells the story of the first full-on cross-country automobile race in 1909. While publicity stunts nowadays are a dime-a-dozen, back in 1909, this was a huge deal that could make or break an automobile manufacturer. Ford was not the juggernaut it would become and the Model T was not the undisputed champion of cars. Ford, the person and company, needed this win. He would not be leaving anything to chance.
Moskowitz tells a pretty delightful story with this one. It may be for a bit of a niche audience, but that’s not a bad thing. You get to learn about the men who take on this challenge and get to basically tour the U.S. before the car officially took over as the king of transportation. It turns out, you can drive into a ravine really easily when there aren’t roads built for a machine. If any of this sounds slightly interesting, definitely pick this one up.
And if Ford hadn’t won this race? Well, I’m pretty sure I know who he would have blamed.
(This book was provided as an advanced reader copy by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press.)
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.