Sarna describes ford as having conservative social and political views and disliking this saw jews and their progressive beliefs as the antithesis of his value system. This class is about an hour and 15 minutes. All right. Good afternoon, everybody. Last time, we looked broadly at hatred during world war i and we looked at immigration restriction, which was in some ways related to that, and we looked at the ku klux klan and we spent a lot of time on the translation of the forgeries of the protocols of the elders of lyon. And we mentioned some of the antiimmigrant rhetoric associated with prohibition. What i want to do today is focus on the person who really did more than anyone else to fan the flames of antisemitism in the 1920s, and that was none other than the famous american industrialist henry ford. Henry ford is a great hero to Many Americans. There were lots of people who wanted henry ford to run for president in 1924. But as we will see, he refused jew jews, for understandable reasons, perceived henry ford to be an enemy. Let me give a little bit of background on henry ford. He is in exceedingly interesting person. Born in a very small community. Spring well township, michigan. Today we would say he was good at the stem subjects. Good at mathematics and careering, which in those days was mechanics, and very bad at reading and writing. He actually becomes a good friend of thomas edison, who of course was not a great lover of the jewish people. He then spent a lot of time as a young person working to create an auto engine. In your generation, people work in their garage to make Apple Computers. Steve jobs built Apple Computers in his garage and made an absolute fortune. In henry fords day you would make an automobile that would be cheap and that would really allow for what would become a transformation of the country. Henry ford succeeds and that in that. Like all sorts of investors, he has also its of false starts, but eventually he creates the model t which does anybody know what is important about the model t . It was not the very first automobile after all. What was special about the model t . It was the first massproduced automobile. Yeah, apple was not the first computer by a long shot. But what henry ford did, he made the automobile accessible to everyone. Ah, the price drops. He sells model ts eventually for 290. Much like when computers dropped below a certain price. I remember when only very wealthy people had cell phones. They were a norm is things. You needed a whole suitcase to carry it around. He had it to show off. It was exciting to people. Henry ford put the world on wheels. And he was absolutely transformative. He is very important for studies of industrialization. He did not invent mass production, but he really demonstrates what mass production can accomplish. He popularizers mass production. Eight hours of work, eight hours of leisure, eight hours of sleep. We dont all get that either, but it is part of a philosophy that becomes associated with henry ford. He uses his wealth for various social causes, but the amazing thing is, and this is really where we will see his interest in jews, henry ford uses some of his money to restore the good old days. Imagine, and industrialist and investor would not be so interested in the good old days, but henry ford absolutely was. For example, he fought hard to revive we would not associate henry ford with that, but he thought square dancing was much better for america than the newfangled music and the lascivious dancers that dances that were overtaking america in the early 20thcentury. He doesnt believe in pasteurized milk. Dont try that at home. But he thinks the old ways of getting milk were much better, and so on and so forth. He restores farmhouses. He loves the mcguffey readers. Anyone know what the mcguffey reader is . You ever hear of not if you went to school in the 19th century. [laughter] mcguffey produced a set of graduated readers. They were meant to introduce reading to young people and the goal was graduated. So every grade had Different Levels of reading. And the reading was thought to be at a high level and there were illustrations and so on. Many, many people who study in the 19th century especially at rural schools use mcguffeys readers. There are still places that try and teach the mcguffey reading system. They believe this is really the best way to teach reading and to teach elevated literature. The truth of the matter is, some maybe i will bring it in at some point. Some early mcguffey readers would contain rather antijewish material. There is a dispute as to whether in for himself studied those early readers and if that influenced him. Some of the bible reading, new testament readings that cast jew s in a bad light. One of the mcguffey readers had material from the merchant of venice which cast jews in a bad light. Regardless whether or not that was a central influence on ford, it tells us something. He wanted to bring back these great oldfashioned textbooks of the good old days. That to his mind was what america needed. Henry ford in 1916 is going to promote peace. Some people think he was progerman. He certainly was a pacifist. And one of the things he pays for is what known as a ship with a jewish woman named rosita shumer, and the ship is supposed to sail around and promote east during world war i. Many people ridicule bps ship and the peace ship and ridiculed the pacifism it was promoting. Some would argue later one of the problems with her was going to move from her to generalize about all jews. Certainly ford was unhappy about the bad publicity he received connected with the peace ship and all that went with it. The reason ford was worried about the bad publicity was actually pr, Public Relations was absolutely essential to the success of henry ford and he was one of the very early people to understand how important Public Relations was. And some of his Public Relations activities are very famous. So, for example in 1914, he distributes and gets a norm is praise that he is going to distribute profits to workers people who worked at ford motor company. They got the sum of five dollars a day. The public life of henry ford, meaning the Public Relations aspect of his life was quite significant. He wanted newspapers to report favorably on him. He wanted really to be viewed in a very positive way. That was very important to the company. There is a very good book, the public life of henry ford, where you can see how significant it is to ford. And that may help to explain why ford eventually decides that he is going to have his own newspaper. And he purchases the dearborn independent. Where is dearborn . About about 35 minutes outside detroit . Yes. There was an installation at dearborn, followed by the dearborn independent. What is the great advantage of owning your own newspaper . How you control how the newspaper is talking about you . If you want to control euro and message, its helpful to own euro newspaper your own newspaper. Yes, it is called the dearborn independent, but it is not just for people in dearborn. What is his great advantage . Yeah. He has cars. He has cars and if you want to sell cars, you need, then and now [indiscernible] dealerships . Dealerships. And they are beholden to you because if they do not do what you say, you will not let them have cars and they will not make any money. But all of those Car Dealerships now have to carry and distribute the dearborn independent. So it is going to be a much more important newspaper then had it just remained a very local newspaper in dearborn. And he buys this paper, sets it up, gets it going in 1919. It is called the dearborn independent, but honestly it is not independent at all. It is a free country. Call it what you like. But actually it was totally dependent on the ford motor company. And not surprisingly, the views of the dearborn independent and the views of the report are remarkably similar. That should not surprise anyone. That would be true of any newspaper that reflected the views of its owners. But the paper is very much in favor of pacifism. It likes prohibition. Meaning that it is in favor of limiting alcohol, which forgot was wicked. Ford thought was wicked. It supports all sorts of traditions. One of the most Interesting Articles and the title of the article tells you a lot about the outlook of henry ford. An editorial entitled the old ways were good. The irony, the astonishing irony. Yeah. He made the car and he is talking about the old ways. This is exactly right. There is no one who did more to bring new ways to america, to transform america than henry ford did. The automobile was one of the most transformative inventions in the 20th century. The fact that people would travel significant distances easily was enormously important. Very rapidly horses disappeared from the streets of the city and automobiles replaced them and we needed to have highways and the like. Nothing transforms america in those days more [indiscernible] the ford motor automobile to modernize america, or was that an accident . Oh, hes certainly continue to support the automobile. Its an interesting question. What youre really asking is was he aware of this irony . That is only something we think. My senses, he is not aware of it. He is a country person. He remembers small towns. He likes small towns. It did not occur to him that nobody had done more to change america from the old ways to the new ways than himself. One of the lessons is, one can be a great agent of change and be totally oblivious to the changes that one has in fact brought about. But if one looks, there is a whole group in thisperiod in this period that are antimodernists. We think of this era as the spread of modernity. But ford illustrates both antimodernism and in the 20th century the city is going to become very significant. The truth is, and is will be important as we turn to jews, th e jews are very Much Associated with american cities. They are urban. But henry ford, he is really enamored of old, rural america. For him, along with Thomas Jefferson before him, all of americas virtues were connected with rural america. He very much was appalled at the cities where so many of his automobiles would be sold. Whats interesting to look at is the antisemitism is going to bring together a lot of the themes that ford champions. That is to say jews are symbols of identity, are symbols of urbanization. Jews, to his mind, were opponents of prohibition, and that was not always correct. A lot of immigrants did like prohibition. In fact there is a book on jews and the liquor trade called jews and booze. Very good title. Ford had some dim awareness of this. But he certainly knew that jews were opposed to prohibition. And one can see how jews reflected to him the antithesis of many things he believed in. Many of the things he most believed then. I said earlier that writing and reading are not things that henry ford excelled in. What does that suggest about the dearborn independent . What does it suggest . [indiscernible] exactly. Do not for a minute believe henry ford did all of the writing or oversee the writing. It does not mean he did not know about it. It does mean he employed other people to do it. Yeah . [indiscernible] i suppose you could call it ghostwriting, meaning very often these were people who wrote things in ford from name, but he did not himself write them. Later, ford would claim that sometimes he did not know what was in the dearborn independent. That is quite unlikely to most people. Some articles were signed by other people. But in any case, most of the articles that are those we are going to focus on in the dearborn independent were written by a man named william j. Cameron. Cameron is part of a very interesting little group called the anglo israelites. Anyone by chance know anything about the anglo israelites . The anglo israelites and remember when we talked about 1930s america the anglo israelites believed that anglos were the real heirs of the jews, and people who call themselves jews were usurpers. In other words, this is a way to say that the master race are the anglos. The jews who now exist, they are not jews at all. There is a long tradition in the 20th century of people who argue the temporary contemporary jews are not really the jews of the bible. They converted to judaism. The important thing was that cameron he took it as an article of religious faith he was the true jew and the jews in america were usurpers and he believed as anglo israelites did, the anglo israelites believed they were to do people really vying to be the chosen people. The anglosaxons and the jews and it was essential for the good of civilization for which group to win . The anglosaxons. Yeah, that the anglosaxon should win. You see, this was not the only antisemi it is not that we are imposing that word on them. Some of the people who work on the the dearborn independent clearly named themselves as antisemitic. They would not mind being known as antisemites. Earnestly bold, another ford associate, does not like jews and so on. We reach here the 1920s. Just in terms of the economics of the auto industry, the 20s are not a really good decade for henry ford. And the reason was he was facing very significant competition. And some have argued that indeed he began searching for enemies. Excuse me. Sometimes when times are bad you search for enemies. People to blame for their troubles. Whether or not that is the reason, it is worth remembering in that it will also shape the way jews we respond. And this goes back to the protocols of zion russian royalist, meaning those who supported the tsar, actually brought to ford and cameron some of these people surrounding ford the protocols of the elders of zion, and they had persuaded ford the ultimate goal of the tsar the fall of the tsar was the responsibility of the . The jews. In any case, whatever the psychological or economic reason ford begins to call the International Jew a problem in 1920. Think about that. You have a newspaper that is being distributed, somewhere between a quarter and half a million copies being distributed everywhere. And suddenly it has an expose on the International Jew. And when the articles are in publication, there are eventually going to be 91 of them. 91 weeks. But periodically there were reprints of the series. Our newspapers things that people keep . No. He wanted to make sure that they will be preserved. So after he produced the newspapers every few months every 20 articles, he would gather together the newspapers, and he would produce these little books. I only own two of them. There were four of them that were produced. That brought together these articles. I was very lucky because a copy that i managed to procure had a note that reads to the library this copy of the International Jew the worlds foremost problem is for your reading table. Please accept it with our compliments. The dearborn publishing company. What does this mean . He was sending them to libraries for free and encouraging people to read them. He believed in this cause. Please take care of these. They are irreplaceable. He believed they should get maximum publicity and the way what he did, he knew about Public Relations. He knew how to get it done. He sent free copies to every library in america and the use were very, very cheaply produced books. Why do you think he prepared produced them cheaply . But the fact that they were very cheap meant what . He wanted everyone to have access to them. Yes. This is not a book for the elite. Everyone could afford to get the four volume book of henry ford. And in fact, every ford sales book had these books. This will help you understand why jews refuse to buy ford products in those days. The publications and three automobiles were closely linked. I gave you some materials, photocopied from these books. The table of contents. Take a look at them. And tell me you know, what we learned. Even from the very title. What do we make of this title . Some of you have it i would say its this way. What you make of the title . The International Jew the worlds problem. Jews are everywhere and everywhere they are causing havoc . Absolutely right. The very title. And stated as a declarative. This does have certain elements of influence from the protocols of the elders of zion. But not only is it the International Jew but in 1920 what is the International Jew according to the cover of the book . The worlds foremost problem. The worlds foremost problem. Not the flu epidemic. Not warfare. Not warfare. Not the arms race. Not economic problems. The worlds foremost problem, he declared, and he did not put a question mark there. Was the International Jew. Now take a look. I have given you, i think, on the next page, i have the preface. Is there anything you learn . [indiscernible] the jews have control over the news that america reads . Again, one of the great ironies. Here is a man working very hard to control coverage of himself and has bought a newspaper and distributed it in the hundreds of thousands, and nevertheless, he believes the autocratic direction of the very news that the American People read is all due to the jews. Good. What else . Yeah . In the preface, he is talking about the jewish question. [indiscernible] indeed, the terms of the question is going to be much stuck in this era. If you go to very old libraries you will find that the jewish question was a subject matter. Its not a jewish question. Its a nonjewish question. Henry ford did a great deal to elevate the idea that there was a jewish question all over the world and in america. And that was really not so much a question as a problem. And that needed to be on the agenda of the American People. What else can we see in this . What exactly is the jewish question . What do you think he thought was the jewish question . And think back to the protocols of the elders of zion. Does anybody have a sense, what he thought the problem was . Take a look here. A very important sentence in his preface. The International Jew and his family, the conscious enemies conscious enemies of anglosaxon civilization. The jewish problem as he saw it was really the rising number of jews why does the number keep rising . The 1920s, before immigration restrictions. So, you still had hundreds of thousands of jews coming into the country, and from his perspective, and indeed from the perspective of many who viewed america in racial terms, the anglosaxons were under attack and in this case from his perspective, this was a real war between anglosaxons who he defined as good and jews, and jews are really to blame for everything he views as bad. That is why i wanted you to take a look at the table of contents here. I have given you two. The first table of contents from volume one is the International Jew because it is talking in part about what goes on outside of the country. The jewish world problem. It is very much, as you can see, take a look at chapter 10 what is chapter 10 of volume one . [indiscernible] anybody have a sense why he doesnt even the wikipedia says he reprints the protocols, but what he is doing is not actually reprinting the protocols. In some ways he is publicizing. [indiscernible] they are translations. They are large understand. They are vague. They are generalized. They are hard to understand. What he does is take the protocols, but actually apply them to daytoday situations people did know about and he would say, this is an example of what the protocols are talking about so that many chapters will begin with the protocols, or have a liner two from the protocols, and then go further. Take a look. What else do you see, just looking at the contents of volume one, which as i said, is the international volume, and then we will move to volume two which is jewish activities in the united states. But what kinds of things is he talking about, if you read no further we will read further. Not probably today. But if you read further than the table of contents, what kinds of things would you learn . Yeah . Like you said, it kind of looks like the jews have their hands in everything. Give me an example. All the things going on in washington, the world press magazine, the recent world war. I think it becomes kind of clear, the pattern and the title. It kind of goes back to, like, the old like the old idea that jews around the world are somehow connected and part of this really large conspiracy. The International Jews, the evil, all over jews distributing this plan that has been concocted. I think that is exactly right. There is a definite world Jewish Program that exists his answer, it will not surprise you, is yes. Others argue that jews are responsible for world war i. Everything bad is blamed on the jews, even though there was no jewish country, and none of the leaders france for was not jewish. On and on. You begin to argue the jew stood behind all of these people jew,s the jews stood behind all of these people, and argument very much taken from the protocols of zion. Then we see the idea connected to the red scare of the time. What are they really worried about . What do they fear . Yes . The communists are going to overthrow america. Good. Exactly. The fear of bolshevism, as he puts it. The communists are taking over in russia. Were there jewish communists . No question about it. Lenin, we now know, although it was hidden by the communists, he had jewish roots. That did not mean all jews were communists. A certain number of communists are jews does not mean all jews are communists. Nevertheless, for the reader of the dearborn independent, here was another problem they could blame on jews. Then we moved to the second, which is entitled jewish activity in the united states. And and then again, take a look at the table of contents, and we will go back and look at what we might learn in a second. But lets take a look at the table of contents. Just what do you learn from the table of contents . Yes . One thing i noticed they think the jews have a lot more power than they probably did at this time give me an example. [indiscernible] by the way it is in the protocols of the elders of zion the real fear that jews are hiding or secretly in control of many aspects of american and indeed world life. But they are experts in doing what . Take a look at the very first item. What are they experts in . [indiscernible] whats that . Conspiracy. This is true of all conspiracy theories. There is a Conspiracy Theory that blames the jews. You can say gee i dont see jews running things. And the answer is . It is concealed. Can anybody negate that argument . Jews are visible. Its jews. If i dont see it, well, it is concealed. And this is quite typical of conspiratorial claims of all kinds. The same was true of people who thought that the masons in the 19th century controlled everything or the catholics controlled it. But there is always the part that is visible, and then the sense of how can you possibly see it . They are concealing it. The fact that you do not see it is itself part of the conspiracy, and that is very much the case here. What kind of a world and this is of course what worries them so much. They come to america to be part of america. They did not want to continue to exist in a european sent where they a european sense where they are a separate people, kept apart. What kind of a world is henry ford thinking up here . He says that jewish rights clash with american rights. Jews are not conforming to american culture. They will not melt. Either it is a battle of jews versus nonjews, or as michelle says, he believes they want to change america. And that means hes got an answer for why america has shifted. All of these innovations and indeed take a look in the middle here. What is another innovation he doesnt like . Movies. They are obscene. They are portraying wicked values. By the way, [indiscernible] who is to blame for that . The jews. You have read this before. Hollywood. There were jews in the film industry, but he suddenly is able to blame jews for yet another element he doesnt like and what makes this so very frightening much more frightening in some ways than the protocols of the elders of zion because the protocols of the elders of zion were so vague. Whats going on here . He is offering specifics. He is offering specifics. And people can read the specifics and say oh. The generalization must be right. That is always a danger when you generalize from an example. Just because soandso is a jew certainly does not mean that all jews are like soandso. But very much the argument that he puts through here, and as we go down here, we can see that he is worried about what is being taught in schools. And that brings us back to mcguffey. The Public Schools are no longer teaching old values that they should preach and used to preach and did preach when he studied back when he was growing up. Instead because of jews, that the School Curricula is being changed. And again, very much talking about the jewish question. Notice if you look just that the preface here he does something quite interesting. That again is quite common in conspiratorial writing. Take a look at the second paragraph especially. Whats going on there . Yeah . Im sorry. It looks like jewish people have tried to refute the articles but he is defending his articles saying they have not shown fax to refute them. He is casting suspicion on them because they refute it he says that makes them or suspicious. They cant win. This is a tactic used in debate. I do not know if any of you have studied debate. What is this going to do in terms of debating tactics here . In this paragraph . The articles less for printed remain on answered unanswere d. A favorite evasion of jewish editors is to say that the statements about the jewish people can be said about any race. But these statements have not been made about any other race nor could there be. What is going on . What is the tactic . So, what you are trying to do is really disarm opponents in advance i saying, oh, by saying, oh, they are going to say a, b c and d, and when they say it, they say, that is what we said you would say. You make it impossible to respond. And what he talks about unansw ered, and of course there are many answers, but how does he define those answers . They are not answers. They are what . They are evasions, denunciations, misrepresentations. So, you ought to be aware this is very common in propaganda. It is a game where people will try hard to prevent responses by in a sense, telling you in advance what the opposition will say, in the hopes that they will then be disarmed from saying so. And that is very much what is going on here. It is, of course, very interesting that jews are defined here as a separate race. This is an era where jews were often seen as a race apart, much like the hunt arians, the polls the scotch irish, and so on the hungarians. I think some of the responses skewed the language of race, but others were prepared to accept the language of race. If any jews read the International Jew and were not observing and thought that other jews were really like this . Im not sure the issue was religious. Indeed, what is the essence of race . That is everyone. It does not matter it is in your genes. It does not matter whether you are religious or irreligious. But the question is a very important one, which is how do you respond to this . And actually the American Jewish community had a very difficult time with that. What would we do . If we called a meeting and a very famous person started issuing antisomatic articles antisemitic articles, a whole theory. What would be some of the possibilities in terms of responding . What would be some of the arguments question mark we talked about this at the very beginning of the course. Ways of responding to antisemitism. Even if you dont remember, what kind of things my one do . [indiscernible] the jews went straight to the government. Ok, so some people might have argued, lets try to shut down this newspaper. Lets start lets try to prevent hate speech. Thats what this is. From being distributed. It actually in some ways is a very contemporary question all over the world. How should one deal with hate speech . What would some countries feel about hate speech . [indiscernible] good. And various forms of hate speech are illegal. In egypt, any criticism of the government now recently was considered hate speech and band banned. What about in america . What is the problem . The first amendment. So, the notion of free press and free speech has made it difficult to ban hate speech. How did Louis Brandeis think one should respond to hate speech . Does anybody know . In his response that his response that you responded with more speech. There was a significant dispute in jewish circles. If you had been there, what are some things you might have said . What might one do in the face of hate speech . Kind of cowardly, but i think this happened a lot. They forgot they were jewish [indiscernible] lets ignore him. Silence. And indeed, jacob schiff who was probably the leading american jew of that time, wealthy proud, he was at the end of his life. But jacob schiff was very nervous about taking on an industrialist the camry ford who was like henry ford who a lot of people thought was a hero and should be president. His sense was maybe lets not do anything. Lets ignore it. If we give it publicity, it will only make it worse said he. And that was a very powerful voice not to respond. Do you think everybody agreed with that . Why not . What is the problem with not responding . Yes. Probably just sit there and take it. And also if you dont refute it, that is kind of like saying that is true. Exactly. Not to respond is to suggest i cant respond, so naturally there were people that were unhappy. You can certainly see in newspapers and elsewhere various kinds of responses. Although they dont quite mention henry ford by name, but the American Jewish yearbook devotes a whole issue of the yearbook to responding to charges that began with henry ford. Everything from the idea that jews are dishonest because on the day of atonement, the First Service of young cook or yom kippur they say our vows are not vows. And this was taken to be, well, they admit it. So the yearbook writes a long article about the service and what it is really about and so on. You have jewish responses to communism. What is the problem which the yearbook admits . How Many Americans do you think read the American Jewish yearbook . Not so many. Yes, it was in many libraries. But that really was, i think written for the jews you were talking about who did not know how to answer, who really were uncertain. But many jews said henry fords allies are not people simply misinformed and once we give them the truth they will change their ways. This was an organized Group Opposed to jews. What other options did people have . A lot of people boycotted. Then you had lets really make them pay for this. This is hatred against a group. Well, lets respond. There is a danger, which is what . What has henry ford been saying about jews . They control. They are a group. If you stage a boycott, that almost sounds like you are playing into his hands. On the other hand, there were plenty of people who said i will not give any of my money to this man. Indeed, there were some jewish dealers of henry fords, ford dealers who were jewish who gave up selling fords and so on and many jews who would not purchase a ford. Yeah. How many jews were not buying fords . Was it affecting profit . Were there enough people not buying . It is a very hard question to answer. The reason it is a hard question to answer is that there were lots of reasons why people were buying other cars in the 1920s. There were carmakers who begin to offer choices of colors. Henry ford famously said in the beginning could have any color you wanted as long as it was black. Mass production, the whole point of mass production was you made every car the same way. So how many of the people who did not buy fords were not buying fords because they decided chrysler or General Motors or whatever were better cars, more to their liking . And how many of them were specifically trying to hurt ford in the pocket book . That is hard to know. There are some indications that some of the people around ford did believe as we move on in time, that the antisemitic campaign was a great drag on the company, a diversion from selling cars, needlessly antagonized consumers and that was why they wanted to see it ended. I dont know if any of you are taking courses in business. But most Business Schools dont suggest that you antagonize part of your customer base, insult him, say you are a danger to america. That is not the best way of selling goods to people. You try and make them feel good, welcome, and important, and so on. That tends to be a more successful way of selling goods. I dont think anybody can absolutely put a number on what it meant. What do you think all of this material how do you think it affected jews . Imagine you are living in that period of time and one of the most famous and most respected men in america he is like gates or jobs today someone who changed america who everyone respects, was worth millions and millions of dollars, who made their lives easier. Henry ford has come out against the jews. How do you think the Jewish Community felt . Not particularly safe. Everything in these writings, like everything can be attributed to jews so if jews are involved with anything it is a loselose. If they are involved in it, they are, you know, helping to keep up these ideas. For a lot of these things, they are not making a living because they have control over every sort of occupation. Absolutely right. The Jewish Community in the 20s was deeply nervous. That is always a hard thing to prove. I will try and another class to bring in some material that shows just how unhappy and nervous they were. But it is not hard to imagine. Here is a man regularly publishing attacks. What made it so difficult and hard to respond to was that so many of the attacks followed the system were some pieces of evidence might be right about a particular jew but the generalization from the particular to the general was really where the mistake was. Nevertheless, a lot of people were prepared to generalize from the individual who was being described to the general. Now there were people who really felt one had to fight henry ford. Some wanted to fight him in law courts. As we will see, that does eventually happen. Eventually, one of the people ford writes about sues him sues him. That is going to have a big impact. There were others. Some of them are not easy to document. But there is this report that william fox of 20th century Fox William Fox in hollywood threatened he would make films about accidents with the model t that would scare everybody away from the model t. Whether it is actually so or not, i cant tell you. You know others simply would attack ford, ignorant ford maybe a good inventor but he really does not know what he is talking about in these areas and so on. The Chicago Tribune called in the 1922 and ignorant idealist and ford sued for 1 million. That was a lot of money. It is still a lot of money, but it was much more money in those days, for defamation. They put him on the stand. The lawyer asked him a lot of questions. It turned out he was kind of ignorant of lots of things. [laughter] and ford was eventually awarded six cents in damages, and that was deeply embarrassing to henry ford. Obviously, people who did not like ford were very happy at that tactic. It also explained ford, after that explains in 1922, he never wanted to appear on the stand again. I dont know if you have ever had the misfortune of beinit is easy to be made by the other side to look rather foolish, rather hard if you are not practiced to look great. Anyway, they had an easy time. He was not a man of broad intellect. That is why he was able to fall for all sorts of conspiracy theories. There is no particular reason why a genius industrialist who is also a genius at creating massproduced cars is necessarily an expert on all World Affairs. That is a complete fallacy. Anymore than someone who is an expert at World Affairs would necessarily be a good inventor. I have no idea if Henry Kissinger cannot in a nail can knock in a nail. No one would expect he would be able to do that. It was strange to think that just because someone was an industrialist who must be a worldfamous expert on everything. There are unusual moments in the ford affair. One of the most unusual was when henry ford, in the midst of printing these articles, sent a gift, as he regularly did, to detroits famous reformed rabbi franklin, leo franklin. In the middle of a series of antisemitic articles, what do you think rabbi franklin did when he got a free car from henry ford . He returned it. You must have the wrong person here. You have just accused jews of all sorts of things. How can you offer me a gift . Apparently, henry ford was deeply surprised. I am talking about the jews, im not talking about you. Even though this is humorous to us, it does remind us of an important theme in the scholarship of antisemitism which we talked about early on, the mythical jew and the jew next door. To henry ford, rabbi franklin is the jew next door. He is highly respected honorable, important religious leader i want to be on good terms with him. I live in detroit. He is an important figure. I will send him a car. Of course, from rabbi franklins point of view, if youre writing all these negative things about jews, then i side with them. But it is an interesting example of how in the antisemitic mind you can simultaneously sometimes i cant be an antisemite, my best friend is a jew. Here you have rabbi franklin, the jew next door. Then you have the mythical jew. I would like those books back, please. The International Jew that thank you that he is writing about here. That is a moment to me that ford really dabbed did have this tension between the mythical jew and the jew next door. I think i am going to put off until next time what i want to do next time, first i want to read with you. I will send it around. One of the chapter so we get a sense of how it works. How does antisemitic writing work . Why was it so much more successful than the protocols . You will instantly see because he seems to be explaining contemporary events. Then we will talk about erin sapir up aaron sapiro, who is the person who sues ford. There is a new book on that subject. A rather interesting court case. Any questions comments . Join us each saturday evening at 8 00 and midnight for classroom lectures from across the country on different topics and eras of american history. Lectures are also available as podcasts. Visit our website or download them from itunes
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