The REO Motor Car Company’s existence spanned a seventy-plus year period, from its establishment in mid-1904 to its demise in 1975. The company was located in Lansing, Michigan, the capital of the state. Unlike such other state capitals as Madison, Wisconsin, however, Lansing was a community heavily oriented toward manufacturing. Founder of the firm was the fabled Ransom Eli Olds, who earlier had established a top-ranked automobile company, the Olds Motor Works, producer of the Oldsmobile car (as the vast majority of automotive historians are aware, sharp objections from heads of his former firm to use of the name "Olds" in the title of the new firm resulted in the acronym "REO" being adapted from the initials of Olds’ name).

Ransom Olds was a highly ethical businessman and company chief executive, as were his colleagues in the firm’s management ranks. They were however, conservative individuals, particularly in the area of employee relations. Olds himself had experienced labor disputes (including strikes) early in his career at the family-owned engine plant in Lansing, and later at the Oldsmobile factory in Detroit. He had little use for employee unions, and sought to develop programs which, among other things, would keep his workers out of such groups.

The approaches used by the firm to keep workers contented and eager to become (and remain) members of the "REO family" are comprehensibly set forth by Lisa Fine in her very interesting book, REO Joe. Dr. Fine notes perceptively that the program of company paternalism instituted at REO was to a substantial degree made possible by the location of the firm in a medium-sized city with its roots sunk deeply in rural America. Workers employed at REO were overwhelmingly white males, the majority native-born. They came from small towns or farms in the greater Lansing area, and in overall outlook were nearly as conservative as their superiors.

The programs sponsored for workers by the REO firm as part of the "welfare capitalism" approach were many and varied. Lisa Fine describes such functions as company sports teams (baseball and bowling were favorites), dances, banquets, and clubs set up to promote special activities. These had enormous appeal to the employees of the firm. In 1917 the REO firm constructed a good-sized clubhouse, which became the center for employee activities.

In exchange for the above – described employee benefit programs, the REO firm expected loyalty from its workers. This encompassed dedication to their jobs and, of course, no pro-union activity.

The REO program, Dr. Fine feels, was generally successful for many years. However, as the decade of the 1930s unfurled, conditions changed dramatically. The economic depression of that period hit the company hard, resulting in massive layoffs and short work weeks. A sit-down strike in 1937, while relatively peaceful, undoubtedly caused further strain between management and employees.

The company, which experienced a brush with bankruptcy in the late 1930s, was changed totally by the Second World War. As Lisa Fine notes, from that time on REO was a firm which was compelled to rely heavily on government contracts to remain afloat. This resulted in a huge change in employer-employee relations, with a third party, the government, now playing a key role. The new era also brought with it a major shift in the nature of the work force at REO. For the first time women were employed in jobs throughout the plant, and minorities secured at least a toehold in the ranks of workers.

The REO firm continued in operation in the decades following World War Two, although a series of takeovers clearly weakened REO and led to a loss of local control. During the 1950s, however, there was at least a modest resurgence of the old-time "REO Spirit" in the plant. In describing this the author pays a considerable amount of attention to the almost extraordinary participation of male REO workers in the sport of hunting wild game. Factory management recognized that this sport was so important to the workers that plant schedules were adjusted to take into account the huge degree of absenteeism.

This is a thoroughly-researched book, and also an extremely readable one. Automotive historians and others interested in learning more about the lives of auto plant workers in the early and middle days of the industry will find it informative and enjoyable.

• Sinclair Powell