Crash Course
The American Automobile Industry's Road from Glory to Disaster
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Narrated by:
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Patrick Lawlor
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By:
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Paul Ingrassia
About this listen
This is the epic saga of the American automobile industry's rise and demise, a compelling story of hubris, denial, missed opportunities, and self-inflicted wounds that culminates with the president of the United States ushering two of Detroit's Big Three car companies - once proud symbols of prosperity - through bankruptcy. The cost to American taxpayers topped $100 billion - enough to buy every car and truck sold in America in the first half of 2009.
With unprecedented access, Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Ingrassia takes us from factory floors to small-town dealerships to Detroit's boardrooms to the inner sanctums of the White House. He reveals why President Barack Obama personally decided to save Chrysler when many of his advisors opposed the idea. Ingrassia provides the dramatic story behind Obama's dismissal of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner and the angry reaction from GM's board - the same people who had watched idly while the company plunged into penury.
In Crash Course, Ingrassia answers the big questions: Was Detroit's self-destruction inevitable? What were the key turning points? Why did Japanese automakers manage American workers better than the American companies themselves? Ingrassia also describes dysfunctional corporate cultures (even as GM's market share plunged, the company continued business as usual) and Detroit's perverse system of "inverse layoffs" (which allowed union members to invoke seniority to avoid work). Along the way, we meet Detroit's frustrated reformers and witness the wrenching decisions that Ford executives had to make to avoid GM's fate.
Informed by Ingrassia's 25 years of experience covering the auto industry for the Wall Street Journal, and showing an appreciation for Detroit's profound influence on our country's society and culture, Crash Course is a uniquely American and deeply instructive story, one not to be missed.
©2010 Paul J. Ingrassia (P)2010 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Glory Lost and Found: How Delta Climbed from Despair to Dominance in the Post-9/11 Era tells the story of Delta's dramatic tumble into bankruptcy and how it climbed its way back to pre-eminence despite hurricane-force headwinds: high fuel prices, a hostile takeover bid, relentless competition, economic meltdowns, and geopolitical shocks.
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For Aviation Enthusiasts & the Business Industry
- By Striker on 03-24-17
By: Seth Kaplan, and others
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The Firm
- The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business
- By: Duff McDonald
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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A behind-the-scenes, revelatory history of McKinsey & Company, America's most influential and controversial business consulting firm, told by one of the nation's leading financial journalists. In The Firm, Duff McDonald uncovers how these high-powered, high-priced business savants have ushered in waves of structural, financial, and technological shifts. With unrivaled access to company documents and current and former employees, McDonald reveals the inner workings of what just might be the most influential private organization in America.
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Warning: Non consultants should avoid
- By R. Jaeger on 11-04-13
By: Duff McDonald
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The Frackers
- The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters
- By: Gregory Zuckerman
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 15 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Everyone knew it was crazy to try to extract oil and natural gas buried in shale rock deep below the ground. Everyone, that is, except a few reckless wildcatters - who risked their careers to prove the world wrong. Things looked grim for American energy in 2006. Oil production was in steep decline and natural gas was hard to find. The Iraq War threatened the nation’s already tenuous relations with the Middle East. China was rapidly industrializing and competing for resources.
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Balanced approach on controversial topic
- By Chris on 01-02-14
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King of Capital
- The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone
- By: John E. Morris, David Carey
- Narrated by: George K. Wilson
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The financial establishment---banks and investment bankers, such as Citigroup, Bear Stearns, Lehman, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley---were the cowboys, recklessly assuming risks, leveraging up to astronomical levels, and driving the economy to the brink of disaster.
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Great Story Ruined by Monotone Reading
- By Marc on 04-23-13
By: John E. Morris, and others
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Engines of Change
- A History of the American Dream in Fifteen Cars
- By: Paul Ingrassia
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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America was made manifest by its cars. From the assembly lines of Henry Ford to the open roads of Route 66 and Jack Kerouac, America's history is a vehicular history-an idea brought brilliantly to life in this major work by the acclaimed author of Crash Course: The American Automobile Industry's Road from Glory to Disaster.
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Cars, Computers, and "Engines of Change"
- By Joshua Kim on 06-17-12
By: Paul Ingrassia
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The Lost Bank
- The Story of Washington Mutual - The Biggest Bank Failure in American History
- By: Kirsten Grind
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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During the most dizzying days of the financial crisis, Washington Mutual, a bank with hundreds of billions of dollars in its coffers, suffered a crippling bank run. The story of its final, brutal collapse in the autumn of 2008, and its controversial sale to JPMorgan Chase, is an astonishing account of how one bank lost itself to greed and mismanagement, and how the entire financial industry - and even the entire country - lost its way as well. Kirsten Grind’s The Lost Bank is a magisterial and gripping account of these events.
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Sad and Angry by Turn
- By Johnnie Walker on 07-24-12
By: Kirsten Grind
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Dethroning the King
- The Hostile Takeover of Anheuser-Busch, an American Icon
- By: Julie MacIntosh
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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How did InBev, a Belgian company controlled by Brazilians, take over one of America's most beloved brands after barely a whimper of a fight? With timing - and some unexpected help from powerful members of the Busch dynasty, the very family that had run the company for more than a century. From the very heart of America's heartland to the European continent to Brazil, Dethroning the King is the ultimate corporate caper and a fascinating case study that's both wide-reaching and profound.
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Good Story but Narration Can be Annoying
- By Ken on 10-21-11
By: Julie MacIntosh
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The Tycoons
- How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
- By: Charles R. Morris
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The modern American economy was the creation of four men: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. They were the giants of the Gilded Age, a moment of riotous growth that established America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet. Acclaimed author Charles R. Morris vividly brings these men and their times to life. The Tycoons tells the incredible story of how these four determined men wrenched the economy into the modern age, inventing a nation of full economic participation that could not have been imagined earlier.
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Good book wrong title
- By Hectoris on 10-06-16
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Rainbow's End: The Crash of 1929
- Oxford University Press: Pivotal Moments in US History
- By: Maury Klein
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The first major history of the Crash in over a decade, Rainbow's End tells the story of the stock market collapse in a colorful, swift-moving narrative that blends a vivid portrait of the 1920s with an intensely gripping account of Wall Street's greatest catastrophe. The book offers a vibrant picture of a world full of plungers, powerful bankers, corporate titans, millionaire brokers, and buoyantly optimistic stock market bulls.
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Plenty of fine detail, especially of the 1920s
- By Philo on 04-18-13
By: Maury Klein
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The Oligarchs
- Wealth and Power in the New Russia
- By: David Hoffman
- Narrated by: Steve Coulter
- Length: 22 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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A brilliant investigative narrative: How six average Soviet men rose to the pinnacle of Russia's battered economy. David Hoffman, former Moscow bureau chief for
The Washington Post, sheds light onto the hidden lives of Russia's most feared power brokers: the oligarchs. Focusing on six of these ruthless men Hoffman reveals how a few players managed to take over Russia's cash-strapped economy and then divvy it up in loans-for-shares deals.
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Supreme Chronicle of Murky Times
- By ivan on 03-01-14
By: David Hoffman
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Confidence Men
- Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President
- By: Ron Suskind
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 22 hrs
- Unabridged
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The hidden history of Wall Street and the White House comes down to a single American concept: confidence. Both centers of power, New York and Washington, learned how to manufacture it - until August 2007, when that confidence began to crumble. Ron Suskind here tells the story of what happened next, as Wall Street struggled to save itself while a man with little experience and soaring rhetoric emerged from obscurity to usher in "a new era of responsibility".
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Insightful, but...
- By Ray on 10-29-11
By: Ron Suskind
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The Money Culture
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The 1980s was the most outrageous and turbulent era in the financial market since the crash of ’29, not only on Wall Street but around the world. Michael Lewis, as a trainee at Salomon Brothers in New York and as an investment banker and later financial journalist, was uniquely positioned to chronicle the ambition and folly that fueled the decade. In these trenchant, often hilarious true tales we meet the colorful movers and shakers who commanded the headlines and rewrote the rules.
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Not the normal great Michael Lewis
- By Me on 05-12-12
By: Michael Lewis
What listeners say about Crash Course
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- J. Papanestor
- 10-27-21
A lot of dates and numbers about automobile...
too many dates and numbers but tells the strength of the UAW and how they can change a companies bottom line. did not finish listening to it.
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- TrueRoan
- 03-29-22
Fascinating
Best book about the auto industry that I’ve read. Very thorough and interesting history on the topic.
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- Computer Nut
- 11-11-16
Thorough, worthwhile story
I found the timespan and depth of this book to be spot-on and I highly recommend it to other readers. Thanks.
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- Jeff
- 09-14-20
Insightful look at the auto industry's failures
Very good example of how, when something fails, many people and many sides are to blame. Both the executives and the workers (UAW) are responsible for the industry's shortcomings.
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- Chelsea
- 10-30-14
Couldn't stop listening
Any additional comments?
For someone to whom the depth of the crisis at the big three came as a surprise, this was a very enlightening book. A nice balance of history of the companies from their origins (particularly Ford) and the slow development of entrenched politics, protocol, and a decadent sense of entitlement all around that wouldn't allow the flexibility necessary to compete with diverse competition in the domestic market. Well structured, well performed and with interesting content. Highly recommended to anyone interested in cars, American car culture and American big business.
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- Jon DeSimone
- 01-16-24
A good history of the us auto business
The story was interesting but i expected the 08/09 piece to be more than 10 percent of the book. Fine business history
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- tcp100
- 08-26-12
Great story - intermittently grating narration
Where does Crash Course rank among all the audiobooks you???ve listened to so far?
It's a great story - I love business history, especially about failure and recovery.
What do you think the narrator could have done better?
The narrator has a serious affect whenever he pronounces words with the letter "U". It's almost like he's intentionally trying to have some sort of blue-blood angle to certain words that make them sound like nobody would ever prounounce even in normal narration or conversation.He pronounces every "U", as "eeew", appropriate or not. I can kind of deal with this in words like "tuesday", but the way he says "institeewwtion" and "deewwk" (the university) borders on ludicrous (or, as he would say, "leeewdicrous"). It's particulary humorous listening to him try to insert his affect into the word "June", which he desperately wants to pronounce as "Jeeewne", but he knows it would sound utterly stupid, so he quickly reverts back to normal.It's not a bad enough issue to ruin the book, but you kind of grit your teeth and sigh every time he runs across a "U" word. If you're a bit more of an adverturous type, I guess you could turn it into a drinking game.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Richard H. Ernst
- 10-25-10
an oligopoly and a monopoly
I did not realize how destructive the combination of oligopoly (Big 3 or Detroit 3) and monopoly (UAW) can be to an entire industry. I recommend that you read this well written history.
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- Delamic
- 03-06-18
Excellent balanced history of the Big 3 undoing
Could only have been written by someone who followed the Big 3 over a long period and could recognize fact from fiction. I worked for one of the Big 3 for few years in the 80s and invested in parts suppliers in the 90s so I know many of the principles in the book and the author really nailed it. Highly recommend
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- Roy
- 04-19-10
Contemporary History at Its Best
Banks, real estate, and now the American auto industry have all been covered and Paul Ingrassia does us a favor for filling us in on the car parts (pun intended). He includes the good the bad and ugly.
First, Ingrassia begins at the beginning and covers a lot of ground that to some may be familiar. The start of US auto manufacture, the establishment of GM, Ford, Chrysler and others. The boom years, oil embargo, muscle cars, SUV rage and the Japanese invasion are all here. The latter part of the book, of course, details the ultimate demise of GM and Chrysler.
Ingrassia could be accused of union bashing, but I thought he was really explaining the codependency between management and the unions. He certainly comes down hard on the Honda bribery years and leaves rooms for all of us to hang our heads.
This is really a sad tale and I wonder if the story of the US auto industry might not be a metaphor for the decline of our competitive abilities in general.
Wonderfully written, Crash Course is read by the very able Patrick Lawlor. It is keeps the listener's interest. I would hope that every American concerned about our competitive situation and economic future will give the book a try.
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6 people found this helpful