Comeback: The Fall & Rise of the American Automobile Industry

by Paul Ingrassia, Joseph B. White

In Comeback, Pulitzer Prize-winners Paul Ingrassia and Joseph B. White take us to the boardrooms, the executive offices, and the shop floors of the auto business to reconstruct, in riveting detail, how America's premier industry stumbled, fell, and picked itself up again. The story begins in 1982, when Honda started building cars in Marysville, Ohio, and the entire U.S. car industry seemed to be on the brink of extinction. It ends just over a decade later, with a remarkable turn of the tables, as Japan's car industry falters and America's Big Three emerge as formidable global competitors.

Comeback is a story propelled by larger-than-life characters — Lee Iacocca, Henry Ford II, Don Petersen, Roger Smith, among many others — and their greed, pride, and sheer refusal to face facts. But it is also a story full of dedicated, unlikely heroes who struggled to make the Big Three change before it was too late.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, History

496 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1994

About the author

Paul Ingrassia was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who served as managing editor of Reuters from 2011 to 2016.

Reviews

[Evan]

This book went into detail about car companies in America from the mid to late 80s up to the mid 90s. The main companies discussed were GM, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota. The book went into detail on a lot of the players, which could be hard to keep track of everyone as the chapters were generally split by company. Described the Nummi plant, and the ways that American companies learned from Toyota. Seemed like the problems and mismanagement of the American companies had more detail than the turnaround, although examples like the Mustang from the early 90s had a good description of how things went right. Overall a great book, compelling read, and very informative to me as someone interested in business and an interested novice in cars.

[Carter]

Great overview of the American auto industry. Well written and edited. Looking forward to reading the follow-up book next.

[William Blair]

An oldie, but goodie, if you're into cars or business, especially the car business.

How Detroit lost its way (the first time) and allowe Japan to eat their lunch.

I would love it if the authors wrote a similar book about the years 2000-2010, when Detroit lost its way the second time. They made all the same mistakes they made the first time, in my opinion. That just goes to prove that there is no shortage of idiots, and people don't learn from history. Why wasn't this book required reading for any American automobile company officer?

[Loren]

I read this book based on the last collaspe of the US car builders. Turns out the story never really ends. Sincew most people in the US now work in the service industry they have no idea of the pressure faced by manufactures using assembly line methods. You just can not stop building, even when things are not good.

[Grindy Stone]

Fantastic history of Detroit's Big History from 1980-95. The best of this genre is David Halberstam's "The Reckoning"; this book more than holds its own as a follow-up. I would have handed out five stars, but some of the anecdotes (there are several good ones) are repeated, and there is a chapter about a Spanish auto executive that doesn't fit the structure of the rest of the book.