Andre Citroen: The Man and the Motor Cars

The French automobile pioneer and entrepreneur Andre Citroen is one of the neglected founding figures of the industry. Although his name remains a familiar household word, his colourful personality and spectacular achievements are now largely unrecognized. This illustrated biography reviews Citroen's life and work and catalogues the cars he produced. It restores his reputation as one of the most progressive and imaginative characters in the history of the motor car. The book recalls his privileged childhood as the son of a prosperous Jewish immigrant in Paris during the late-19th century. It records the start of his meteoric career, which began with the manufacture of helical gears and continued with the production of munitions during World War I. It goes on to chronicle his prodigious accomplishments as a motor-magnate in the 1920s when he was responsible for the first mass-produced and mass-marketed vehicles in Europe, a feat of industrial creativity that earned him his reputation as the Henry Ford of France. His story comes to a sad end in the Great Depression of the mid-1930s when, just after the launch of his most famous model, the revolutionary Traction Avant, his company went bankrupt and he died.