A I note in the Dedication, while this book is part of the fabled Iconografix Photo Archive series, it is not merely an album of photographs. The informative captions—typically 200 or more words in length that accompany the 141 black-and-white archival images—are the result of extensive research. They are, pun intended, vehicles to tell the larger story. That story is about one of the defunct legendary truck manufacturers that has largely disappeared from view—the Federal Motor Truck Co. of Detroit. The book features a seven-page introductory history of Federal—a firm that, from 1910 to 1959, produced more than 160,000 trucks. Photos provide a delightful array of Federals, from early chain-drive models to trucks designed by legendary stylist Henry Dreyfuss starting in 1938 to house-to-house delivery units, pickups, sedan delivery models, super heavy-duty 6- to 8-tonners, and the Style Liner series introduced in 1950. “A Trip Through the Federal Factory: 1935” is a special section that offers a marvelous visual tour of how Federal manufactured its trucks. Photographs highlight various departments, including engineering, heat-treating, sheetmetal fabrication, assembly line steps, testing, shipping preparation, a “Drive Away,” and the company’s showroom.

Book Review by Robert Gabrick