100 pages • 3 hours read
Upton SinclairThe Flivver King: A Story of Ford-America
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1937A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 1-3
Chapters 4-6
Chapters 7-9
Chapters 10-12
Chapters 13-15
Chapters 16-18
Chapters 19-21
Chapters 22-24
Chapters 25-27
Chapters 28-30
Chapters 31-33
Chapters 34-36
Chapters 37-39
Chapters 40-42
Chapters 43-45
Chapters 46-48
Chapters 49-51
Chapters 52-54
Chapters 55-57
Chapters 58-60
Chapters 61-63
Chapters 64-66
Chapters 67-69
Chapters 70-72
Chapters 73-75
Chapters 76-78
Chapters 79-81
Chapters 82-84
Chapters 85-92
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapters 43-45Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 43 Summary
Ford begins to publish Brasol’s information in the Independent, making it into a mouthpiece for anti-Semitic propaganda for twenty weeks in a row. Specifically, he advocates a conspiracy theory that alleges the existence of a Jewish World Programme: a plot for world domination and the destruction of Gentile civilization that is secretly responsible for such diverse phenomena as “the world’s troubles, wars, strikes, insurrections, revolutions, crime, drunkenness, epidemics, and disasters,” all of which as “the work of organized, malignant, corrupting Jews” (109). The paper claims that it publishes only information that has been thoroughly fact-checked and proven, and members of the public who believe Ford to be an honest person take the paper’s claims at face value.
Some Jewish Americans protest the claims Ford’s paper makes. In response, Ford “set[s] to work to get the facts about the American Jews and what they [are] doing” (109). The results of this “investigation,” which he publishes in the Independent, are more anti-Semitic tales from Ford’s “spy department,” which moves from Dearborn to New York and claims that the various perceived moral ills of the time (drunkenness, licentiousness, jazz music, short skirts, and Bolshevism) are the deliberate work of Jewish conspirators set on destroying American society.
Ford’s anti-Semitic campaign continues for three years. After each article runs in the Independent, Ford has it reprinted as a pamphlet and sells each pamphlet for 25¢, “an achievement of mass production” (110). The propaganda proves popular and circulates widely among people, who quote them “as if they were Scripture” (110).
In the course of spreading his conspiracy theories, Ford becomes convinced that the Russian Revolution is a Jewish conspiracy, and that rather than abolishing capital the Bolsheviks have only confiscated non-Jewish capital. According to Ford, Bolshevik caricatures of bankers are really caricatures of Gentile bankers, and Bolshevik strikes are really strikes against Gentile industry: “That is the purpose of the Red movement. It is alien, Jewish, and anti-Christian” (110).
Chapter 44 Summary
Abner Shutt subscribes to the Independent and buys Ford’s pamphlets, “the first books he had purchased in his life” (111). Abner enthusiastically embraces the anti-Semitic theories: “So much that was going on in the world had been mysterious to him, and now was explained!” (111). He begins to avoid shops he perceives as owned by Jews and teaches his children anti-Semitism. When he learns that the boy who had led Hank and the other train-robbers was called Levy, he blames the other boy and treats Hank more leniently. He takes pains to learn the names of some men in town who participate in organized crime, but his anti-Semitic bias influences the way he takes up and interprets this information: “Some were Jewish names and some were not, but it was the Jews whom Abner fixed in his mind” (112).
When Abner’s son Tommy’s teacher tells him that “Mr. Ford’s material about the Jews [is] not altogether reliable” (112), Abner decides that the teacher must also be part of the Jewish conspiracy. Abner is recruited into the Ku Klux Klan, which is “being revived to put down Jews, Catholics, Reds, and other alien enemies” (112). Abner’s task is to “gather information about traitors in America” (112). The Klan then nails signs to the front doors of these supposed traitors’ homes and burns crosses in fields: “When those fires had died down, Abner went away assured that Protestant Gentile American civilization was safe” (113).
Chapter 45 Summary
Ford spreads rumors about a variety of Jewish-American public figures. When he plans to publish material about the film producer William Fox’s “business methods and the moral character of his pictures,” Fox rejoins with a threat: he will use his newsreel (which is shown in thousands of movie theatres each week) to show the public news—including pictures, death statistics, and the defects in each car—about Ford cars being involved in accidents (113).
Ford backs down and agrees to stop attacking Jews in his paper. But the damage is already done. Abner continues his Ku Klux Klan activities. Meanwhile, a man called Sapiro brings a $5 million lawsuit against Ford for libel. The case goes to trial, and Ford agrees to settle; he claims that he has been completely unaware of the Independent’s anti-Jewish rhetoric and proclaims that “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” has been long known to be a source of specious information.
Ford makes a speech asking “forgiveness for the harm [he has] unintentionally committed” (115). However, his attempts to distance himself from the Independent’s anti-Semitism are belied by statements in his autobiography, My Life and Work, in which he describes Judaism as “a nasty Orientalism which has insidiously affected every channel of expression” and accuses Jews of “economic or intellectually subversive warfare upon Christian society” and “calculated subversion” (114).
Chapters 43-45 Analysis
These chapters continue to depict Ford and Abner as foils for one another. Neither is portrayed as an evil person, yet both end up doing evil things: Ford spreads anti-Semitic views and Abner joins the Ku Klux Klan. How does this happen?
Both men are unskilled in thinking critically; neither has much interest in, or understanding of, historical facts. These traits, together with intellectual laziness, contribute to both men’s gullible acceptance of hateful lies. Additionally, each man has self-interested reasons to believe the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories Brasol peddles: Abner clearly would like to believe that his son Hank is not as bad as he seems, but rather has been led astray by a nefarious Jewish boy. Ford is troubled by the state of the world, which he sees as morally degraded, and threatened by the idea that a Bolshevik revolution like the one in Russia could seize his factories and his wealth.
Abner and Ford may be similarly gullible, but Ford is the one responsible for spreading lies. These chapters depict a dangerous consequence of individual wealth. Ford acquires the Independent not because he has any particular interest in, or commitment to, journalism; rather, his ownership of the paper is more or less an incidental consequence of his fabulous wealth. However, once he owns the paper, he also has control over the views and ideas it publishes, and can afford to circulate those views and ideas widely by printing enormous numbers of copies.
Moreover, because people know and trust the Ford brand, they read his paper eagerly and believe everything in it. Thus, an unreflective, uneducated, uncritical, and bigoted man manages to influence an enormous number of people, despite the fact that the information his paper disseminates is neither news nor a justifiable opinion; it is a mere hateful fantasy that has already been discredited.
The public, represented by Abner, seems to equate two very different kinds of product: cars and information. For Abner, the fact that a Ford car runs well (and that he knows and trusts the man who makes the car) suggests that the information published by a Ford-owned paper must be reliable. However, information is not like a car; its reliability is not something one tests empirically. One of Sinclair’s suggestions seems to be that the capitalist system, which allows any wealthy person to control an information source, turns information into a commodity like any other. Treating information as a product like others, without the oversight of responsible, ethical journalists and the work of fact-checkers, can lead to disastrous consequences, like Abner’s participation in the Ku Klux Klan and terrorizing innocent people.
Although Sapiro’s lawsuit is successful in forcing Ford to retract his views, and Sapiro is certainly in the right in bringing it, not just anyone could have undertaken the task of suing Ford. Bringing a suit entails paying a lawyer’s fee, so only a person with sufficient disposable income could have done so; this episode in the novel illustrates the role wealth plays in securing justice and ensuring such crucial civil goods as a reliable press and the freedom of oppressed and marginalized groups from hate speech and persecution.
