American Experience: Henry Ford

Tuesday, January 29 at 9:00 p.m.

"Henry Ford" paints a fascinating portrait of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century.

Ford’s Model T automobile and his five-dollar-a-day wage ushered in the modern world, earning Ford reverence from millions of Americans. Yet many of the changes he wrought deeply troubled the carmaker.

In frustration, he lashed out at enemies, real and imagined, blamed Jews for the country’s problems, bullied those who worked for him and exhibited great cruelty to his only son, often, it seemed, wishing to retreat to an idyllic fantasy of the past.

An absorbing life story, "Henry Ford" also offers an incisive look at the birth of the American auto industry with its long history of struggles between labor and management, and a thought-provoking reminder of how Ford’s automobile forever changed the way we work, where we live, and our ideas about individuality, freedom, and possibility.