Charles K. Hyde has 3 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 3 narrators. The most-rated is Storied Independent Automakers.
Riding the Roller Coaster
Summary
From the Chrysler Six of 1924 to the front-wheel-drive vehicles of the '70s and '80s to the minivan, Chrysler boasts an impressive list of technological firsts. But even though the company has catered well to a variety of consumers, it has come to the brink of financial ruin more than once in its seventy-five-year history. How Chrysler has achieved monumental success and then managed colossal failure and sharp recovery is explained in Riding the Roller Coaster, a lively, unprecedented look at a major force in the American automobile industry since 1925. Charles Hyde tells the intriguing story behind Chrysler--its products, people, and performance over time--with particular focus on the company's management. The book covers Walter P. Chrysler's life and automotive career before 1925, when he founded the Chrysler Corporation, to 1998, when it merged with Daimler-Benz. Chrysler made a late entrance into the industry in 1925, when it emerged from Chalmers and Maxwell, and further grew when it absorbed Dodge Brothers and American Motors Corporation. Throughout, the colorful personalities of its leaders--including Chrysler himself and Lee Iacocca--emerged as strong forces in the company's development, imparting a risk-taking mentality that gave the company its verve. Winner of the Michigan Notable Book Award. The book is published by Wayne State University Press.
©2003 Wayne State University Press (P)2015 Redwood Audiobooks
The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, and the Legacy
Summary
At the start of the Ford Motor Company in 1903, the Dodge Brothers supplied nearly every car part needed by the up-and-coming auto giant. After 15 years of operating a successful automotive supplier company, much to Ford's advantage, John and Horace Dodge again changed the face of the automotive market in 1914 by introducing their own car. The Dodge Brothers automobile carried on their names even after their untimely deaths in 1920, with the company then remaining in the hands of their widows until its sale in 1925 to New York bankers and subsequent purchase in 1928 by Walter Chrysler. Charles K. Hyde's book The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, and the Legacy is the first scholarly study of the Dodge brothers and their company, chronicling their lives - from their childhood in Niles, Michigan, to their long years of learning the machinist's trade in Battle Creek, Port Huron, Detroit, and Windsor, Ontario - and examining their influence on automotive manufacturing and marketing trends in the early part of the 20th century. Winner of Michigan Notable Book Awards. Published by Wayne State University Press.
©2005 Wayne State University Press (P)2015 Redwood Audiobooks
Storied Independent Automakers
Summary
With roots extending back to the first decade of the twentieth century, Nash Motor Company and the Hudson Motor Car Company managed to compete and even prosper as independent producers until they merged in 1954 to form the American Motors Company, which itself remained independent until it was bought in 1987 by the Chrysler Corporation. In Storied Independent Automakers, renowned automotive scholar Charles K. Hyde argues that these companies, while so far neglected by auto history scholars, made notable contributions to automotive engineering and styling and were an important part of the American automobile industry. Hyde investigates how the relatively small corporations struggled in a postwar marketplace increasingly dominated by the giant firms of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, which benefited from economies of scale in styling, engineering, tooling, marketing, and sales. He examines the innovations that kept the independents' products distinctive from those of the Big Three and allowed them to survive and sometimes prosper against their larger competitors. Finally, Hyde analyzes the ultimate failure of the American Motors Company and the legacy it left for carmakers and consumers today. Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award and Society of Automotive Historians Award.
©2009 Wayne State University Press (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks