Listen to a recap of Alfred Sloan's autobiography, titled 'My Years with General Motors.'

Although he didn't create General Motors, Alfred Sloan is widely credited with GM's massive success and is often considered one of the best American businessmen of all time.

Read the founding story of the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, named after longtime General Motors CEO Alfred P. Sloan and research director Charles Kettering.

Longtime General Motors CEO Alfred Sloan used the motto 'a car for every purse and purpose' to represent the value of having multiple car brands with different target audiences under one company.

Listen to a reflection on General Motors' role in American life.

Listen to the story of how General Motors beat out the Ford Motor Company to become the largest car manufacturer by 1931.

See a timeline of important moments in General Motors' history, including its early automatic innovations in creating electrical systems in cars and the birth of the American muscle car in 1964.

In 1919, General Motors created the General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) to offer car loans and payment plans, revolutionizing America's relationship with debt by offering one of the very first buy now, pay later programs.

Read what professors at Harvard Business School think led to General Motors' 2009 bankruptcy.

Charles Kettering, the person who invented the electric starter on cars, helped develop the diesel locomotive engine while working as head researcher at General Motors.

Owning a large catalog of brands with distinct purposes and customer bases helped General Motors overtake Ford Motor Company as America's leading car manufacturer, something that still sets the company apart today.

Learn about how General Motors dismantled America's streetcars

General Motors President Charles Wilson is often quoted as saying, 'What's good for General Motors is good for America,' in 1953—but a closer examination of the records reveals a different message.

Despite founding General Motors, one of the most successful car companies in the world, William Durant lost his multimillion-dollar fortune before he died.

See a timeline of the US government's investments and restructuring efforts of General Motors following the Great Recession.

After being the country's largest automaker by sales volume for nearly 100 years, Toyota surpassed General Motors as the top automobile manufacturer in the US—representing a shift in the American economy that once heavily depended on domestic manufacturing.

In 1965, consumer advocate Ralph Nader released 'Unsafe At Any Speed,' a scandalous exposé on the risks of cars, prompting backlash from leading automakers including General Motors, which gave way to some of the earliest automobile regulations.

Mary Barra became the first female CEO of General Motors in 2014, making her the first woman to hold the office in the largely male-dominated automobile industry overall.

After delisting and going private for nearly two years in the midst of the Great Recession, General Motors went public for the second time in 2010 in what was then the largest IPO in history.

Motown Records used an assembly-line approach to songwriting, inspired by founder Berry Gordy's time at Ford Motor Company.

Abandoned Detroit: the decline of America's car mecca

One of Henry Ford's early failed business ventures later became Cadillac

After investing more than $10B in less than 10 years, General Motors abandoned its controversial robotaxi development efforts in 2024.

Watch someone drive a Model T Ford, which feels like driving 'a tractor with the soul of a sewing machine'—and learn how to operate one.

During one large strike, 9,000 General Motors workers walked out for 54 days in 1998 over management's decision to hire outside contractors for equipment removal and fears of widespread job losses.

Henry Ford pioneered the first moving assembly line, building on earlier iterations of the manufacturing method

Henry Ford built a plastic car from soybeans in 1941

One of Henry Ford's early vehicle prototypes broke an all-time speed record and got him the money to start Ford Motor Company

David Ogilvy—one of history's most famous and influential advertising executives—wrote multiple books, including 'Ogilvy on Advertising,' a career memoir full of his favorite copywriting advice.

In 2023, the United Auto Workers launched the 'Stand Up Strike,' a six-week strike against all of the 'Big Three' automakers, to bargain for cost-of-living pay increases, end a tiered workforce structure, and more.

Listen to the details of Henry Ford's widely speculated affair and secret child.

David Ogilvy resigned the Rolls-Royce account after dissatisfaction with its cars

‘The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby’ was a letter to an editor

Read how Fordism helped invent the American middle class

In February 2014, General Motors recalled more than 2.6 million cars—part of a record 30 million vehicles it recalled that year—over faulty ignition switches that had caused multiple deaths, ultimately costing the company more than $4B in repair costs, victim compensation, and other expenses.

CEO Gary Tan explains Y Combinators guiding philosophy

Robber barons grew monopolies over their respective industries through a combination of aggressive vertical and horizontal integration strategies.

'Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise.'

Listen to Steve Jobs explain his 'rock tumbler' metaphor for teamwork.

Listen to legendary investor Marc Andreessen argue against the 'lump of labor fallacy,' the idea that there's a finite amount of work in an economy.

Berkshire Hathaway's origin story is strongly intertwined with Warren Buffett's

A Guardian writer turned midlife chess slump into an obsession

Explore (digitally) the Computer History Museum

Learn about the relationship between Thomas Edison and Henry Ford

Watch 'Standing in the Shadows of Motown,' a documentary about Motown's house band that played on more chart-topping hits than the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Elvis Presley combined.

Standard Oil used vertical integration to create an empire

Listen to Gay Talese read from 'Frank Sinatra Has a Cold'

Listen to a breakdown of Jay Gould's life and career, ranging from his ownership of the Erie Railroad to his role in the 1869 'Black Friday' gold panic.

The drama of the car dealership quota

Jensen Huang doesn't think Nvidia was a great company on day one

Apple's first backer recruited his own CEO to help manage the company