Fins: Harley Earl, the Rise of General Motors, and the Glory Days of Detroit

Wonderful details about the automotive giants of the early to mid twentieth century. How new innovations came about and the personal lives of the leading players in the automobile industry. A great read!

A good read!

This is a well written and fast moving, professionally produced assessment of the 1950;s car era and Harley Earl's ability to dictate the major trends. Ultimately it led to excess and disaster in the form of the rapid growth of European sales in the US as a result of cars simply getting too big for many city dwellers.The rapport between Earl and Alfred P Sloan is rather surprising given their personalities but explains Earl's rise to power within GM which he could not have sustained without Sloan. That might not have been a bad thing given modern styling but the thing was Earl was a product of his era.The author does not duck the sometimes negative results from the Earl era while remainging respectful and admiring of his greatest successes. The essence was that Earl was a stylist rather than an engineer and there was a price to pay because of it eventually.HIghly recommended even for the general reader and a must for the car buff

I love this book. As they say, it’s hard to put down. Full of interesting stories that give insights into how an utilitarian industrial product became something much more in America and the world really. Earl was a total character and is fun to read about. His influence was more than most realize. I love this book and how it is written. It’s the best book on auto design that I’ve ever read.

When dealing with designers and cars, one would expect more pictures ... but, that some times requires licensing fees to who owns the pictures and such, adds expense. Still, us car guys, we want to see our kinetic art. That said, is a good read. Learn a bit about his early days, who influenced him, how some luck helped. If you are a history buff and not a car guy, you will enjoy the writing. If you are a car guy and not a history buff, still worth a read. Me, I am both. I have been lucky enough to have met many of my childhood and adult heros and, been able to sit one on one and visit with many and, become friends with some. Reading books, written, like this one, make me feel, that I wish I had been able to meet and talk with Harly Earl, one on one, not just about what made him famous but, about things friends talk about. Maybe, like my tea with more sugar, no mustard on my burger. Watch him work and yet, not be talking about work.

I enjoyed the book immensely, and would highly recommend it to any car nut!I was initially disappointed when I received it, I had kind of been expecting more of a picture book. This is not a picture book at all (it does have a few pages of B&W photos in center), so if that's what you're after, keep looking.But if you're looking for a very well written biography and history of Harley Earl, General Motors, indeed the entire automotive industry from the twenties to the '60s, this is the book for you. Kept my attention - I was reading three or four chapters at a time

This is one of the most informative books describing the essential role styling played in driving the postwar american economy forward.It is also richly entertaining with anecdotes and real life dialogue that captures the originality and humanity of the men who ran GM.Great book!

I really would like to give 5 stars to this very good book. The story is great and the author has good writing and make you go through the time with great fluidity. However, two things bored me (1) it’s a book about auto and design without a single photo. I had to keep Google open most of the time to picture the models and styles mentioned in the book. (2) and this was the most annoying part: the author has a political agenda that he pushes almost the entire book, insisting in judge the 30s, 40s behavior through the lens of 2020.Anyhow, it is a very good book, that tells a great and important story of our age.

The reviews I read before purchasing the book, were accurate. A most informative book and well worth the purchase price!

From my point of view there is not so much info or images about cars with fins but more about the story of the person who made it. This is not my expectation. I would expect more images of prototypes and production cars.

This book is really the story of General Motors... and the author tells a great story. But the Kindle version that I read has no pictures of the cars that Harley Earl designed, so you'll need to keep a smartphone or internet-enabled tablet handy so that you can look up the models referred to. Earl's greatest invention was lowering the passenger compartment so that it sat between the two axles, instead of top of it. This made cars appear closer to the ground and sleeker to look at... but whether his over-the-top 1940s and 1950s styling has stood the test of time is another matter.

Well-written, a fascinating account of a bygone era in many respects. Harley Earl was responsible for the marketing model for the American auto industry in the 20th century, a story all car guys are likely to enjoy reading about, even if they don't especially like the model.

Have always liked American car designs and of course Harley Earl was the best designer by far....disappointed that there are so few photos of his masterpiece