THE LEGEND OF GOODYEAR: THE FIRST 100 YEARS, by Jeffrey L. Rodengen, Write Stuff Syndicate, Inc., 262 pages, $39.95.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of one of America’s most successful businesses, and Rodengen commemorates the event with this history of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Founded in 1898 by Charles and Frank Seiberling–who named the company after Charles Goodyear, inventor of the rubber-curing process–Goodyear produced its first airship in 1911; manufactured wheels, brakes, tires, and fuselages for a variety of aircraft after the creation of the Goodyear Aircraft Company in 1939; started the nation’s first synthetic rubber factory in 1940; and took part in the U.S. program to land a man on the moon.
