Fifty Years of Ford F-150, A Pictorial History of the F-150

by Robert C. Kreipke

This book is akin to having an entire cheerleading squad performing in noiseless celebration just for you. It’s a genuinely beautiful, text-light, generously illustrated volume.

That’s shouldn’t surprise you if you are familiar with the author, Robert C. Kreipke, and his work. During his working life he was Ford Motor Company’s Corporate Historian authoring a number of books. Although now retired, he’s obviously still active having only added the word Emeritus to his descriptive title.

His experiences along with his personal collection of historic documents and images, plus, of course, full access to Ford Motor Company Archive and The Henry Ford, Benson Ford Research Center as well as Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant, coupled with his excellent eye and judgment well equipped him to pick and choose which images to present in this celebratory landscape-format book.

Although there’s no table of contents, you really don’t miss or need it as the book’s contents flow chronologically so easily and logically. It begins with a half-dozen pages of some of the earliest vehicles created by Henry Ford specifically to take on the work of carrying heavy things and goods. Then it leapfrogs ahead to the 50th anniversary of Ford in 1953 noting the introduction of its F-Series truck line. Two pages later, it’s 1975 as the F-150 makes its debut (above).

The balance of the book is a year by year, primarily visual, documenting of F-150’s with a few key observations by Kreipke. While we can (and do) become rather numb to advertising claims, it’s impossible not to be impressed when Kreipke sums up honors earned by F-150s such as being a seven-time winner of Kelley Blue Book’s Best Overall Truck award, named the most–wanted full-size truck by Edmunds (2017), J D Power’s quality award (2005), Motor Trend truck of the year (2012), “National Highway Traffic & Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) 5-Star safe rating in all crash test modes” (2015), and most impressive of all that F-150s have been, documentably, the top-rated, best-selling trucks for 48 years in succession (and that doesn’t count or include any of the sales in lands or countries outside of the US).

With all those accolades, this book “review” verges on becoming a Ford advertisement itself. So, with one last shake of their pom-poms, the cheerleaders and these words conclude with these last pages showing the driver workroom of a 2025 F-150 and, on facing page, a posed photo of the 2025 F-150 line-up (below).