A fascinating story about the birth and death of the American auto industry: about pride, missed opportunities, underestimation of Japanese manufacturers and the tastes of citizens, the failure of corporate culture. How does the story end? To save iconic brands, Obama took $100 billion out of the pockets of American taxpayers - this amount would be enough to buy all the sedans and pickup trucks on the American market in the first half of 2009. Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Ingrassia writes a fascinating story about people, ideas, mistakes and brilliant decisions, the drama of trade union politics. And he’s trying to understand: was the course towards self-destruction inevitable?