About this item
In the 1950s, America enjoyed massive growth and affluence, and no companies contributed more to its success than automakers. They were the biggest and best businesses in the world, their leadership revered, their methods imitated, and their brands synonymous with the nation's aspirations. But by the end of the 1960s, Detroit's profits had evaporated and its famed executives had become symbols of greed, arrogance, and incompetence. And no company suffered this reversal more than General Motors, which found itself the main target of a Senate hearing on auto safety that publicly humiliated its leadership and shattered its reputation. In The Sack of Detroit, Kenneth Whyte recounts the epic rise and unnecessary fall of America's most important industry. At the center of his absorbing narrative are the titans of the automotive world but also the crusaders of safety, including Ralph Nader and a group of senators including Bobby Kennedy.
About the Author
Kenneth Whyte is the author of Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times, the definitive biography of America's 31st president (Knopf, 2017) . He is also the author of The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst, which was a Washington Post and Toronto Globe & Mail book of the year and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Biography and three other awards.Mr. Whyte is currently at work on his third book, which he is determined to finish in two years while serving as chairman of the Donner Canadian Foundation, Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson University, and a Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute.He is an award-winning journalist, editor, and publisher of leading Canadian newspapers and magazines. He was President of Rogers Publishing (Canada's largest magazine publishing company) , President of Next Issue Canada (now Texture) , and Senior Vice President of Public Policy at Rogers Communications. He has vowed never to return to the telecom industry.Mr. Whyte has been a senior fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto and a visiting scholar at McGill University. He is an Honorary Lifetime Alumnus of McGill, a distinction of which the three-time university drop-out is inordinately proud.
