Henry J. Kaiser: Builder in the Modern American West

by Mark S. Foster

Overview

In the 1940s Henry J. Kaiser was a household name, as familiar then as Warren Buffett and Donald Trump are now. Like a Horatio Alger hero, Kaiser rose from lower-middle-class origins to become an enormously wealthy entrepreneur, building roads, bridges, dams, and housing. He established giant businesses in cement, aluminum, chemicals, steel, health care, and tourism. During World War II, his companies built cargo planes and Liberty ships. After the war, he manufactured the Kaiser-Frazer automobile. Along the way, he also became a major force in the development of the western United States, including Hawaii.

Henry J. Kaiser: Builder in the Modern American West is the first biography of this remarkable man. Drawing on a wealth of archival material never before utilized, Mark Foster paints an evenhanded portrait of a man of driving ambition and integrity, perhaps the ultimate "can-do" capitalist. He covers Kaiser's entire life (1882-1967), emphasizing many business ventures. He demonstrates that Kaiser was the prototypical "frontier" entrepreneur who often used government and union support to tame the "wilderness."

Though today the Kaiser industries are no longer under family management, the Kaiser legacy remains great. Kaiser played a major role in building the Hoover, Bonneville, Grand Coulee, and Shasta dams. The Kaiser-Permanente Medical Care Program still provides comprehensive health care for millions of subscribers. Kaiser-planned communities remain in Los Angeles; San Francisco; Portland, Oregon; and Boulder City, Nevada. Kaiser Engineers was actively engaged in hundreds of huge construction jobs across the nation and around the world.

U.S. and business historians, scholars of the modern West, and general readers will all find much to absorb them in this well-written biography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292742260
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	11/01/1989
Series:	American Studies Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	406
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Mark S. Foster (1939-2016) was Professor of History at the University of Colorado at Denver.

Table of Contents

• Foreword by William H. Goetzmann
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Roots
• 2. Launching a Career
• 3. Taming the Wilderness—Roads
• 4. Taming the Wilderness—Dams
• 5. Patriot in Pinstripes—Shipbuilding
• 6. Man of Steel
• 7. Creating an Image
• 8. Planning for a Postwar World
• 9. Debacle in Detroit
• 10. Venturing Abroad
• 11. Cargo Planes and Government Investigations
• 12. Light Metals—Heavy Profits
• 13. Kaiser and the Doctors
• 14. Boss
• 15. Global Development and a Pacific Paradise
• 16. The Sunset Years
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliographic Note
• Index

Editorial Reviews

Kaiser (1882-1967) was a captain of industry whose playing field spanned many sectors of the American economy--dam and road building, shipbuilding, steel, aviation, and more. His standing as a lesser-known in a business pantheon that would include such names as Ford and Carnegie makes this work of some scholarly importance. With emphasis on Kaiser's activities in the American West, this first published biography is a painstaking work of research. However, for the average reader, especially one out of touch with Kaiser's most innovative era (1930s and 1940s), the translation from reams of research to text loses excitement. Academic and comprehensive business or American studies collections should consider.-- David M. Turkalo, Social Law Lib., Boston

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