Crash Course Covers Bailouts and Bankruptcies
The book, "Crash Course," by veteran automotive journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winner 
Paul Ingrassia is the first book about last year's bailouts and bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler. While the book, which was published this month by Random House, focuses on the dramatic events of 2009, it covers the history of the American auto industry from the Model T onward. This excerpt from the opening chapter, published courtesy of Random House, begins in the bleak final months of 2008; it summarizes the mounting crisis and how Ford avoided the fate of its Detroit competitors.
It really wasn't intended to be a prophecy. It was just a smart-alecky tee-shirt worn for years by local teen-agers to annoy their parents, and show their perverse pride in the Motor City's tough-town image. It said: DETROIT: WHERE THE WEAK ARE KILLED AND EATEN. But the menacing message seemed all too appropriate in the bleak winter of 2008-2009, when signs of weakness -- indeed, desperation -- erupted everywhere in Detroit.