This lavishly illustrated book on the famous automobile
manufacturer traces the Studebaker family from its arrival in
America in 1736, to the beginnings of the wagon business under John
M. Studebaker and his brothers in the nineteenth century, to the
family's entry into the automobile industry in 1902, to the last
Studebaker automobile to roll off the assembly line in 1966.
The book, however, is much more than the story of a family
business; it is also, in microcosm, the story of the industrial
development of America. The Studebakers had always been
industrialists in the sense that they made their living by
manufacturing things, albeit on a small scale. When the Industrial
Revolution hit the country with full force, spurred on by the Civil
War, it transformed America from a rural-agrarian society into an
urban-industrial one. The fortunes of the Studebaker family were
transformed with it.
As the title suggests, the Studebaker story was mostly one of
success. Studebaker wagons and carriages were long noted for their
quality and popularity, and so, too, were Studebaker automobiles.
The 1953 Starliner and the 1963 Avanti, designed under Raymond
Loewy's direction, are widely regarded as among the most innovative
examples of American industrial design.
The book deals in detail with the soaring prosperity of the company
in the 1920s, the bankruptcy and miraculous recovery in the 1930s,
the stupendous success of the early post-World War II period, and
the eventual decline of the company's fortunes in the mid-1950s. It
describes the development of such famous models as the Lark,
Avanti, and Gran Tourisimo Hawk, with special attention paid to the
Avanti II, a surprisingly successful spinoff from the dying company
that continued to be produced until 1991. The final chapter, on why
Studebaker died, is tightly reasoned and more convincing than
previous theories. Throughout, the author has used personal
incident and characterization to bring to life the rich, tumultuous
history of one of America's longest enduring industrial empires.
General
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