Chrysler: The Life and Times of an Automotive Genius

Walter Chrysler should be a success. Story that every young person in America knows about. This man was not only a great business person. He understood people he understood processes. He understood what it took to be successful no matter the conditions unlike many of the supposed successful businessman today, Walter Chrysler started by learning with his hands, his heart and his head, and then took what he learned and continuously improved on it. This book really captures the man and his success.

This book is very detailed. Besides discussing the history of Chrysler the man, it also discusses Chrysler's relatives, the history of Ellis, Kansas (Chrysler's boyhood home), the history of other car companies and their founders, and the Great Depression. Anyone who reads this book will feel as if he or she knew Chrysler personally upon completing the book!

Seminal work on Walter Chrysler that is extensive in it's scope and meticulous in its honest straight forward presentation of the research It is a large book appropriate to the subject coupled with an interesting read that the author, Vincent Curcio, provided

To be honest I am only half way through it but am enjoying it and not even a car person but the history is great and to learn how much went into developing the cars and all the background involved. It is well worth the time to read. Don't let the size of the book detour you from reading it.

Having read extensively in the past about both Ford Motor Company and General Motors, I was very interested in getting to know the other member of the "Big Three" (sadly, today we can only talk about the remaining two after Chrysler's incompetent Bob Eaton surrendered the company to Daimler Benz).Although the book is centered in Walter P. Chrysler the author finds it hard not to get carried away by much more imposing personalities in the early automotive business, mainly Henry Ford and William C. Durant (founder of GM). They are mentioned 52 and 53 times respectively.Both Ford and Durant are much more interesting personalities than Chrysler himself and if not for anything else, the book is worth the read just to get to know Mr. Durant. The reason he is much less known today than his other two competitors is that he resisted the temptation to change General Motors name to Durant Motors (he could have done it but decided the GM trademark was too valuable), later in his life he did found a company called Durant Motors but it didn't survive long. If there is an epic to be told about the automotive industry in the USA it is Durant's: he founded General Motors, was ousted from the company, founded Chevrolet, bought his way back to GM control, was ousted again, founded Durant Motors, lost everything after the crash of 1929 and if not for the monetary help his friends (including Walter Chrysler) gave him at the end of his life he would have lived his last days in abject poverty.Walter Chrysler actually made his reputation and original fortune working for William Durant at General Motors' Buick division and after he quit the corporation eventually assembled the Chrysler Corporation (mainly from Maxwell Motors and the Dodge Brothers enterprises). It was a great accomplishment in itself as he started very late (too late thought many) to matter much, and yet he climbed to the third place in sales and eventually to the second place (outranking Ford Motor from 1936 to 1951). Sure, GM (through Alfred Sloan leadership) outclassed both of them and by such a wide margin that (until very recent times) there was absolutely no comparison between the leader and the other two.An interesting fact mentioned in the book is that the Chrysler Building at New York was NOT built by the Chrysler Corporation, but by Walter Chrysler himself so he could give it to his children. At the time it was completed, it was the tallest building in the world.The scope of Curcio's book is very wide and you end learning many things from the first years of automotive history. In other words, it is much more than Walter Chrysler's biography. I fully recommend it.

- great level of detail- book is written in a very engaging way

Superb book, exactly as described, and very quickly delivered to me.

Very informative. A must have for any Mopar fan. Thanks.