The Farmall Dynasty: A History Of International Harvester Tractors: Titan, Mogul, Farmall, Letter, Cub, Hundred, And More

The Farmall Dynasty, by Lee Klancher, is an excellent history of the International Harvester company from their beginnings with Cyrus McCormick and the mechanical reaper all the way to the sad ending of a great American company.The author does an excellent job of setting the stage with the early attempts to build mechanical harvesting devices and the rivalry between McCormick and Deering and how the two merged to form the largest agricultural mechanization company in America at the time. From that beginning, the author traces the development of the McCormick-Deering tractors through to the ground-breaking Farmall tractors that could perform every task on the farm, thus committing the horse to history.The author lists each new tractor and tractor line as time went on, their specifications and production numbers as well. More than just giving the reader the engine horsepower, transmission and clutch types of each model, he explains the reason for that model and how they fared in the marketplace. Sometimes, he gives insight into the times and why a particular model failed to live up to company expectations. Virtually every tractor from early H-type tractors to powerful 4x4 tractors of the 70's and 80's and even the little Cubs and Cub Cadet lawn and garden tractors.We get a sense of the fierce competition in the agricultural industry and how each leap of technology had to be anticipated and made because they were looking over their shoulders at competition catching up to them. The author gives the reader the blow-by-blow competition with Ford twice during the history of IH.Really, this is an excellent book chronicling the International Harvester company and its important role in American agriculture during the 20th century. Thorough and enjoyable, I recommend this book with five stars.

Description did not mention no color photos, in fact few photos. Thin read...expecting more. Hard to appreciate the content when you can't see what it is the author is talking about!

A lot of history within these pages. Great read!

Was a gift

Great book

Great history of the Farmall Tractors. Good model identification and description. Great pictures giving details of various features. Very enjoyable reading.

This book gives an interesting history of the famous[ Farmall] line of tractors.It is well worth the purchase price to anyone interested in classic tractors.

good history

Very interesting. Very well written.

Great book with pictures too!!

un bel ouvrage !!!!bon c est en Anglais mais bon je pense pas qu on est beaucoup le choixreste un beau livre!!!!!