Buy Now - The Flivver King
THE FLIVVER KING | Sinclair, Upton Published in 1937 by the UAW (yup, that literal powerhouse), The Flivver King is a story about Henry Ford and a fictional worker, Abner Shutt. The infamous Upton Sinclair wrote it.
Flivver is an early 20th-century slang term for an inexpensive automobile, often applied to the Model T.
This “novel,” along with their trademark violence, helped the UAW turn the workforce tide against Ford and unionize 4 years later. From this perspective - and nearly only this one - it is a read of a fascinating historical contribution. As a Michiganian, it is always pleasant to read tomes with landmarks of local recognition.
The storytelling is utterly unimaginative and uncritically agitprop; in other words, Upton Sinclair wrote a crappy novel. If you are a Michigan nerd or have lost access to different books, it’s an option; I'm just saying.