Billy Durant

Download or read book Billy Durant written by Lawrence R. Gustin and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2012-10-16 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for the first edition: "A fascinating book [and] a sympathetic look at the man who glued General Motors together and in the process made Flint one of the great industrial centers of America." ---Detroit Free Press "It is refreshing to report that Billy Durant is one of the best researched books dealing with an automotive giant." ---Antique Automobile "Billy Durant fills in a masterly way the only important void remaining concerning the work of the motorcar pioneers." ---Richard Crabb, author of Birth of a Giant: The Men and Incidents That Gave America the Motorcar What explains Billy Durant's powerful influence on the auto industry during its early days? And why, given Durant's impact, has he been nearly forgotten for decades? In search of answers to these questions, Lawrence Gustin interviewed Durant's widow, who provided a wealth of previously unpublished autobiographical notes, letters, and personal papers. Gustin also interviewed two of Durant's personal secretaries and others who had known and worked with the man who created General Motors. The result is the amazing account of the mastermind behind what would become, as the twentieth century progressed, the world's largest company.

Download or read book The Deal Maker written by Axel Madsen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 1999-09-06 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The roller-coaster life of the flamboyant creator of General Motors William C. Durant did big things the big way: he overreached, but, until his final failure, he picked up the pieces time after time to confound his competitors. From a turbulent childhood in the small town of Flint, Michigan, to his phenomenal success in creating General Motors, Durant's meteoric career easily rivals the success stories of modern legends like Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, and Bill Gates. With his trademark smile and personal charisma, Durant assembled General Motors in a few short years, buying companies at the rate of one every thirty days. Durant's deal-making artistry even tempted Henry Ford, and had Durant upped his acquisition price Ford would be a division of GM today. Durant's story illuminates the conflict between innovation and control of innovation -of the uneasy alliances struck again and again between inventors and their sources of capital. His years of heady success building General Motors were marked by epic struggles with bankers. But he depended on only a few sources of big money to finance his exploding business, and pitted himself against forces he underestimated or refused to consider. Gambling on a run on GM stock, he was finally forced into a buyout that ousted him from his role in the GM empire. Into the dramatic tale of this early twentieth-century mogul come the fascinating automotive pioneers -Henry Ford, David Buick, Charles Nash, Albert Champion, Louis Chevrolet, and Alfred P. Sloan. On Wall Street, J. P. Morgan turned down Durant's request for a loan while Pierre du Pont invested in Durant's expansion. Tracing the fortunes of a man and his era, The Deal Maker is a fast-paced, rousing tale of Durant's dizzying success and ultimate failure.

Download or read book The Dream Maker written by Bernard A. Weisberger and published by Boston : Little, Brown. This book was released on 1979 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography of William Durant, the daring entrepreneur who bought the faltering Buick Motor Company and co-founded General Motors Company before his financial gambles lost him the presidency of GM and led to bankruptcy. -- Dust jacket.

Download or read book Billy, Alfred, and General Motors written by William Pelfrey and published by AMACOM/American Management Association. This book was released on 2006 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Painstakingly researched, the book sheds new light on how the divergent approaches of Durant and Sloan were destined to forge an entirely new business archetype, one that would become (and today remains) a global standard."--Jacket.

Download or read book Billy Monster's Daymare written by Alan Durant and published by . This book was released on 2008-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a darkish, spooky house in a darkish, gloomy bedroom there was a SCREAM!! Billy Monster is scared. He keeps having daymares aboutchildren! It's up to Daddy Monster to find a way to help Billy sleep soundly through the day, without daymares about dreaded children. So he searches behind the curtains and in the closet to reassure his young monster that his fears are only dreams. Set in a topsy-turvy monster world, this is a warm and funny story perfect for chasing away bedtime fears--for children and little monsters alike!

Download or read book The Legend of the First Super Speedway written by Mark Dill and published by BookBaby. This book was released on 2020-11-09 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Legend of the First Super Speedway," is a gritty tale punctuated by humor that chronicles the hero's journey through the pioneering age of American auto racing. It is a factual, previously untold story that must be read for a thorough understanding of auto racing history.

Download or read book Heroes of History written by Will Durant and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2012-01-28 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of his own bestselling masterpieces The Story of Civilization and The Lessons of History, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Will Durant traces the lives and ideas of those who have helped to define civilization, from its dawn to the beginning of the modern world. Heroes of History is a book of life-enhancing wisdom and optimism, complete with Durant's wit, knowledge, and unique ability to explain events and ideas in simple, exciting terms. It is the lessons of our heritage passed on for the edification and benefit of future generations—a fitting legacy from America's most beloved historian and philosopher. Will Durant's popularity as America's favorite teacher of history and philosophy remains undiminished by time. His books are accessible to readers of every kind, and his unique ability to compress complicated ideas and events into a few pages without ever "talking down" to the reader, enhanced by his memorable wit and a razor-sharp judgment about men and their motives, made all of his books huge bestsellers. Heroes of History carries on this tradition of making scholarship and philosophy understandable to the general reader, and making them good reading, as well. At the dawn of a new millennium and the beginning of a new century, nothing could be more appropriate than this brilliant book that examines the meaning of human civilization and history and draws from the experience of the past the lessons we need to know to put the future into context and live in confidence, rather than fear and ignorance.