Ford Motor Company's Web page describes the firm as “a global automotive industry leader, based in Dearborn, Mich., [which] manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents.” That was, and indeed is, the company's heritage. Now almost fifty years since its publication in 1964, there is a new edition of Mira Wilkins and Frank Ernest Hill's American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents. The book, which has long been out of print, traces the history of Ford's international business. It was Ford Motor Company that introduced to Americans and to the rest of the world an affordable car that would revolutionize personal transportation. For many individuals around the world, the words Ford and automobile were at one time synonymous. Our book on Ford's global expansion has continued to be cited and has had over the many years a substantial impact on the study of international business, international business history, and business history.

As a new generation at Ford Motor Company leads this global enterprise, it is worth recalling the firm's more than one hundred years of involvement in business around the world. Ford Motor Company's participation in international business was spurred by Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, and Henry Ford II. The commitments to business abroad were implemented by a formidable array of individuals in Detroit/Dearborn—and around the globe—who developed the vast operations.