In class we had quite a heated discussion over chapter 18's depiction of Henry Ford. One side seemed to argue that the book backed Henry Ford, while the other saw him as an arrogant ass. I thought that E.L. Doctorow saw Ford as a man set aside from the general public, one with a great intellectual gift. Ford is quite clearly on a level different from the factory workers surrounding him. Ford has an image that they cannot compare to.
The way Ford spends a minute to rejoice his success with the factory workers was seem by many as an act of arrogant superiority by many in the class, however I saw it as a testament to his dedication in that he would only allow himself a minute to celebrate one of his greatest successes before his demanding work ethic told him to get back to work.
Some argued that Ford was very full of himself and thought of the factory workers as machines. The comments early in the chapter seem to support a conclusion that maybe the average factory worker was a bit of a "fool" in comparison to Ford. While Ford is superior he maintains his image by celebrating their success with the factory workers and does not degrade them for being incapable of doing the same work as him. The chapters about J. P. Morgan seem to solidify this as Morgan and Ford are portrayed as these extremely gifted people, completely unlike the rest of the world. Ford recalls his odd ability to understand how things work without every being taught, an instance that seems to solidify his status. I believe that E.L. Doctorow did see Ford as a smart man and is not trying to depict him as an arrogant ass, but rather as someone that can't help seem slightly arrogant due to his unnatural genius.
Well, as unsavory as his perspective on the average intelligence of the factory worker may be, I don't think it's quite right to call it "arrogance"--I agree with you that Ford's "one minute for a show of emotion" reflects a cold efficiency, but *not* a self-aggrandizing inclination. He's being congratulated and celebrated, but he doesn't bask in it. He just wants to produce more cars. (Regardless of his individual views of workers' intelligence, though, the *fact* is that his system literally treats them as interchangeable cogs in a machine, and this might have a range of problematic consequences--*Fordism*, as opposed to Ford himself.)
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