🎉 New to MixCache.com? Sign up now and get $5.00 FREE CREDIT towards any ebook purchase!* Create Account →

The Chicken Tax: How a Trade War Built the American Pickup Truck
The 1963 Tariff That Shaped Detroit, Japan, and the Modern Vehicle Market

Book Details
About this book:

The Chicken Tax: How a Trade War Built the American Pickup Truck How did a trade dispute over frozen chicken in 1963 create the Ford F-150, the Chevrolet Silverado, and the modern SUV? *The Chicken Tax* reveals the absurd, high-stakes origin story of the American pickup truck—a $100 billion-a-year industry built not on engineering genius, but on a retaliatory tariff aimed at Volkswagen vans. From the Kennedy White House to the factory floors of the American South, this is the definitive account of how a 25% "temporary" tax on light trucks became the permanent architecture of the U.S. auto market, locking out foreign rivals, supercharging Detroit's profits, and dictating the size, price, and design of every vehicle on American roads for six decades.

Through meticulous archival research and sharp narrative prose, the book traces the chaotic, often hilarious cat-and-mouse game that followed: Japanese automakers welding jump seats into truck beds to dodge customs, the Treasury Department slamming loopholes shut, and global giants like Toyota and Honda ultimately surrendering to build massive plants in Tennessee and Alabama. You'll discover how the UAW cut a secret deal with LBJ, why the Subaru BRAT had plastic seats in its cargo bed, and how protectionism birthed the SUV boom, the luxury truck, and the electric Hummer.

As the industry pivots to EVs and global trade courts circle the tariff's legality, *The Chicken Tax* asks the urgent question: Can the accidental fortress survive the next disruption? Essential reading for anyone who drives, invests in, or wonders why the American highway looks like nowhere else on earth.

Table of Contents:
  • Introduction: The Accidental Titan: How Poultry Built the American Pickup
  • Chapter 1: Cold War Politics and Frozen Poultry: The Roots of the Trade Dispute
  • Chapter 2: The Great European Chicken Boom and the American Export Surge
  • Chapter 3: "Cheap American Birds": West Germany Clamps Down
  • Chapter 4: The Diplomatic Crossfire: Kennedy, De Gaulle, and Adenauer
  • Chapter 5: The Retaliation List: Brandy, Trucks, Dextrin, and Potato Starch
  • Chapter 6: Proclamation 3564: The Birth of the 25 Percent Tariff
  • Chapter 7: Walter Reuther, the UAW, and the Secret Deal Behind the Tax
  • Chapter 8: Volkswagen’s Casualty: The Transporter and the First Shockwave
  • Chapter 9: Detroit’s Unintended Fortress: Locking Out Foreign Light Trucks
  • Chapter 10: The Japanese Entry: How Datsun and Toyota Discovered a Loophole
  • Chapter 11: The Chassis-Cab Gambit: Dismantling Trucks to Dodge the Duty
  • Chapter 12: The Subcompact Revolution: The Chevy LUV and Ford Courier
  • Chapter 13: Closing the Loophole: The Treasury Department Strikes Back
  • Chapter 14: The Subaru BRAT: Welding Seats in the Cargo Bed
  • Chapter 15: From Utility to Family Hauler: The Rise of the SUV
  • Chapter 16: The Japanese Response: Building Factories in the American South
  • Chapter 17: NAFTA, USMCA, and the Redefining of "Domestic" Manufacturing
  • Chapter 18: The Profit Engine: How Pickups Funded Detroit's Modern Era
  • Chapter 19: The Ford Transit Connect and the European Cargo Van Inversion
  • Chapter 20: Bigger, Heavy, and Luxurious: How Protectionism Shaped Truck Design
  • Chapter 21: Global Trade Courts: The Chicken Tax Encounters the GATT and WTO
  • Chapter 22: Why Six Decades Later the Tax Refuses to Die
  • Chapter 23: The Electric Truck Revolution: Can the Tariff Survive EV Disruptors?
  • Chapter 24: The Consumer Cost: What Protectionism Means at the Dealership
  • Chapter 25: Legacy of Proclamation 3564: The Permanent Architecture of the US Auto Market
Extended Catalog title. This book is part of our extended catalog and is sourced after you order. Usually this process takes less than an hour to a few hours. We'll email you when your ebook is ready.
Author:

Sophia V. Anderson

Published By:

MixCache.com Extended Catalog

Type:

Nonfiction

Date Published:

October 21, 2026

Sample:

Read Sample

🎁 Includes the ebook FREE
Read it the moment it's ready, while you wait for your paperback — no extra charge.
🚚 FREE Shipping in the USA
$7 flat rate per book to all other countries
Order:

Click to order this paperback:

Buy Now
Ebook included · Printed to order Secure Payment
$