By David Cohen

     Neil Baldwin's "Henry Ford and the Jews" is a  compelling look at how a genius at one thing --- the mass production of  a good automobile --- could become such a dangerous buffoon when it came to  another thing --- the mass production of an idea.  At some point, our title character ceased to be just "Henry Ford, automaker" and instead became Henry Ford, wealthy and powerful symbol of international antisemitism. 

        Ford  wanted the world to know that Jews --- particularly, but not exclusively, those involved in international finance --- were responsible for World War I and that they sought to wreck the  United States and run the world. Using a newspaper called the Dearborn Independent to spread the word, Ford and his cronies shared their thoughts on "The International Jew" for a good chunk of the 1920s.  Baldwin's story is multi-layered, focusing not only on Ford and his closest associates, but also  the journalists, Jewish leaders, activists, and assorted prominent antisemites that crossed his path as the world's most prominent industrialist was  doing his best (sometimes eagerly, sometimes seemingly haphazardly) to make the world a less pleasant place. 

        At the core of this book is Ford, and Baldwin paints an interesting portrait of him. Ford disliked Jews (some? most? virtually all?) at least partially because they represented urbanization  and internationalism to him; this was at a time when his own assembly lines were doing so much to help change the nature of a once rural nation as they built Model T Fords for people the world over. This was a man who distrusted written history, so he had his own cockeyed version constructed one week at a time from strands of old prejudices and  current theories. And Ford was a man who vociferously blamed German-Jewish banking interests for World  War I, setting himself up as a hero for the man who would basically come to launch World War II. Both Ford and Charles Lindbergh received medals from Hitler's regime, guaranteeing that their accomplishments would always be marked with asterisks.

          "Henry Ford and the Jews" is solid, interesting and well executed.

            David Cohen  is a copy editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer and author of "Rugged and Enduring: The Eagles, The Browns and 5 Years of Football."