First, it's always nice to find common ground. Henry Ford appears to have been an awful person. He is not, however, a non-person. He did what he did, and the Model T marks a turning point in capitalist thinking. I did not invent the word "Fordism." I don't even credit Ford, the man, with inventing Fordism. He's basically a mythological character to me, the guy whose name is attached to raising wages to create demand. The historical Henry Ford is of no more interest to me than the historical Jesus.

As for the forty-hour week, I assume that workers had been demanding better treatment since forever, so of course "the movement" antedates the emergence of the practice. The question is never when ideas are first promoted; it's when - and why - they win the day.

It would be passing strange if there had never been "crises of overproduction," although I will leave to you the question of whether those crises were the result of too little demand for something people wanted but had no money to buy or too much of things people didn't want. Either way, one swallow does not make a spring. As I said in my original post, for a reason, it takes time for minds to change. The problem Ford and other mass producers in the early 20th century faced was that their crisis of overproduction was going to be permanent. That was news.

I don't see anything in Ford's labor history that suggests class warfare. He just wanted to pay as little as he could pay and was willing to use violence to achieve that goal.

Also, in case you don't know it, you can insert links in comments by copying the link and pretending to replace the text to which you intend to attach it. So, for example, I can type "Battle of the Overpass," then copy the Wikipedia link, highlight "Battle of the Overpass" as if I were about to replace it, and hit CTRL-V. Voila, Battle of the Overpass.