The impact of auto manufacturer General Motors on American culture, the economy, and politics is staggering, as is the sheer size of the corporation. For years, GM was the largest corporation on earth, its value greater than most nations. It was the first company to gross more than one billion dollars a year. When GM had a bad year in 1957, commentators said, "GM sneezed and the economy caught a cold," so interdependent were the U.S. GNP and the fortunes of GM. Controlling more than half of the market and creating more cars than its domestic rivals combined, GM made and sold cars everywhere in the world. Although regulation, foreign competition, and oil shocks have rocked GM the past few decades, for most of its history it has towered over not just the auto industry, but all industry. And from the farmer-friendly, half-ton pick-ups of the...