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 This week, American journalism lost one of its best and brightest. On Monday, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Halberstam died in a car crash in Northern California. The 73-year old author was on his way to interview Y.A. Tittle, the former New York Giants quarterback, for a book about what some believe to be the greatest game ever played, the 1958 championship game between the Giants and the Baltimore Colts. During his nearly 50-year career, Halberstam tackled his share of giants, driving them into the turf with the type of hard-nosed reporting that (unfortunately) usually sits on the sidelines. Although most observers best remember Halberstam's criticism of the Vietnam War, engineering students would do well to read The Reckoning, Halberstam's 21-year old critique of the American auto industry.
"Were there a prize for the most ambitious literary undertaking of the year," the economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote in 1986, The Reckoning "would be an easy winner". In his 752-page masterpiece, David Halberstam examined the decline of the U.S. auto industry through the lens of its competition with Japan. Specifically, the author compared the rise and fall of the Ford Motor Company with the ascent of Nissan. In the aftermath of World War II, Nissan's founder, Yoshisuke Ayukawa, languished in prison while the Ford family became drunk on what Halberstam calls "the postwar euphoria of power". Like his grandfather, Henry Ford II was at first a constructive influence; however, in his later years, he allowed personal differences with subordinates such as Lee Iacocca – a degreed industrial engineer – to cloud his judgment.
Ultimately, Henry Ford II fired Lee Iacocca. Several years later, Chrysler revived Iacocca's career; in return, the new chairman saved the troubled automaker from near-bankruptcy. Halberstam's story didn't end there, however. Unlike those business historians who notice only the powerful, Halberstam interviewed middle managers, union leaders, assembly line workers and – yes – automotive engineers. Most importantly, the author unearthed a critical difference between the promotion practices of Nissan and Ford. In Japan, engineers were the favored candidates for top management. By contrast, in the United States, "the American manager came from a business or law school, as did the board that judged him". Whereas Nissan focused managerial attention on product design and quality, Ford remained obsessed with finance – even at the expense of investment and innovation.
We may never know what David Halberstam planned to ask Y.A. Tittle, but I'm glad that this giant of journalism lived such a long and frutiful life.
Resources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/arts/24halberstam.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3165/is_v22/ai_4467947
http://www.amazon.com/Reckoning-David-Halberstam/dp/0688048382
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/15/home/halberstam-reckoning.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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