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University of Massachusetts Amherst
Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Faculty Publication Series
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Henry Ford And Field And Factory: An Analysis Of The Ford Sponsored Village Industries - Experiment In Michigan, 1918-1941, John R. Mullin
Henry Ford And Field And Factory: An Analysis Of The Ford Sponsored Village Industries - Experiment In Michigan, 1918-1941, John R. Mullin
Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Faculty Publication Series
Between 1916 and 1941, Henry Ford embarked on an effort to decentralize the production facilities of the Ford Motor Company. One component of this effort was an experiment in which he located seventeen small factories, called Village Industries, in rural areas throughout southeastern Michigan. These factories were designed to utilize water power in the production of sub-assembly parts for Ford's main assembly plants and were intended to provide jobs for rural residents. Ford endeavored to develop a sense of "field and factory" in these plants by training rural workers in the latest technological advances, allowing them release time to farm …