In Monday’s session (“Henry Ford and Manufacturing History”) Stephen Meyer, professor of History and Urban Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and author of The Five Dollar Day: Labor, Management and Social Control in the Ford Motor Company, 1908-1921, will profile manufacturing operations and policy at the Ford Highland Park factory. In the same session, Lindy Biggs, Professor of History at Auburn University and author of The Rational Factory will discuss the evolving design of the Ford Rouge complex. Kristin Dziczek, Senior Project Manager at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will complement these historical profiles with an analysis of the contemporary crisis at Ford Motor Company. In the afternoon participants will tour the Henry Ford Museum, hear a mini-lecture on Henry Ford’s role in military production, and begin research projects at the Benson Ford archives.

Ford Motor Company, River Rouge Plant,
Production Line, Mustangs - 1965
Courtesy of the Walter Reuther Library