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Including prices. A brief price guide is included. That's good, and it's good that the editors kept it brief, because prices and values vary widely. Price and value depend on many factors: region, who's buying (and why), who's selling (and how), weather and convenience (such as, if it's raining at a farm auction in North Dakota 30 miles from town on a mud road on the same day of a similar auction in Nebraska... you get the idea).
Back to company histories: I was raised on IH Farmalls and now own a Model H and collectibles from wrenches to promotional items. But I still learned more than I expected to when I went through the Farmall history in "Farm Tractor Collectibles." I've been interested in Fordsons for some time, but it was interesting to glean -through this book- that they'd been shipped to British farms during World War I as "MoM" (Minister of Munition) tractors. Then there were The Tractor Wars, when Henry Ford made a run at the competition by pricing his tractor at $395 (below cost), forcing some manufacturers to drop their prices or fold up entirely. Those that survived, though, grew stronger as a result.
Details like those - and much more make this book a classic for the collector. And if you're not a collector yet, this book may make you one.
Gary Van Hoozer is a Missouri writer specializing in vintage agriculture and farm history.