Powerfully developing his thesis that the complacency and
shortsightedness of American workers and their bosses, especially the
automakers of Detroit, have led to a decline of industrial know-how so
critical that Asian carmakers, particularly the Japanese, have virtually
taken over the market, Halberstam tells in panoramic detail a story
that is alarming in its implications. Immediately ahead lies a harsh
scenario that will see America's standards of living fall
appreciablyonly sacrifices will restore our "greatness." This lengthy
book with its skilled, dramatic interweaving of two little-known
storiesthe inside struggles of the Ford organization (including the
firing of Lee Iacocca) in the 1970s and the growth of the Japanese
automotive industry, notably Nissan, since the 1950s completes the
trilogy Halberstam began with The Best and the Brightest and The Powers
That Be. Here is fresh and crucially meaningful material researched with
notable thoroughness, replete with graphic portraits of top American
and Japanese industrialists competing blindly on the one hand and with
brilliant cunning on the other. The book is among the most absorbing of the 1980s, every page contributing to the breathtaking picture of an
America that is going to learn to retool or else. 200,000 first
printing.