Download or read book America Adopts the Automobile 1895 1910 written by James J. Flink and published by MIT Press (MA). This book was released on 1970 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1895 and the late 1920's American civilization was transformed by the automobile and the automobile industry. In American Adopts the Automobile, 1895-1910,James J. Flink writes about the formation of an American automobile culture during the period from the introduction of the motor vehicle into the United States in 1895 to the opening of the Ford Motor Company's Highland Park plant on January 1, 1910. He concludes that Americans by 1910 were committed to automobility and that, with the development of a mass market for motorcars, the automobile industry in America had reached a critical turning point. From then on, the automobile and the automobile industry "called the tune and set the tempo of modern American life." In contrast to earlier historians of the automobile, Professor Flink avoids narrow concentration on the automobile industry and its product. He focuses instead on the automobile as a factor influencing and influenced by American civilization. The molding of a favorable public opinion of the automobile by the press, the growth of automobile clubs, the evolution of legislation intended to regulate the motor vehicle, the development of roads and services for the motorist, and regional, class, and occupational differences in automotive innovativeness—these are some of the topics that are dealt with adequately for the first time in this authoritative volume. Forty-six full-page illustrations augment the text. Familiar topics are also viewed from a fresh perspective. Having made an exhaustive study of the automobile trade journals and popular periodicals of the period, Professor Flink was able to relate the developments in automotive technology and in the automobile industry to the sociocultural milieu within which these developments took place. He reaches some novel conclusions. He demonstrates, for example, that from the first the organization of the automobile industry and the industry's technological accomplishments lagged behind the public's expectations that a reliable, cheap car for the masses would soon appear and inaugurate a utopian horseless age. Well before Henry Ford came out with his legendary Model T, popular opinion of the automobile was overwhelmingly favorable, and many people thought that automobility was a panacea for society's ills. America Adopts the Automobile, 1895-1910,is the first comprehensive, scholarly account of the origins of the American automobile revolution. It adds a new dimension to our understanding of twentieth century American civilization.
Download or read book Nation on Wheels written by Mark S. Foster and published by Wadsworth Publishing Company. This book was released on 2003 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the impact of the automobile on American society since the end of World War Two in the areas of mass transit, development of the United Auto Workers, rise of suburbia, auto racing, and the automobile's relationship to the youth culture.
Download or read book The Automobile and American Culture written by David Lanier Lewis and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1983 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents essays on all phases of the American automobile industry and the effect of its product on individual lives and the culture of the society.
Download or read book Asphalt Nation written by Jane Holtz Kay and published by Crown. This book was released on 2012-06-20 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Asphalt Nation is a major work of urban studies that examines how the automobile has ravaged America’s cities and landscape, and how we can fight back. The automobile was once seen as a boon to American life, eradicating the pollution caused by horses and granting citizens new levels of personal freedom and mobility. But it was not long before the servant became the master—public spaces were designed to accommodate the automobile at the expense of the pedestrian, mass transportation was neglected, and the poor, unable to afford cars, saw their access to jobs and amenities worsen. Now even drivers themselves suffer, as cars choke the highways and pollution and congestion have replaced the fresh air of the open road. Today our world revolves around the car—as a nation, we spend eight billion hours a year stuck in traffic. In Asphalt Nation, Jane Holtz Kay effectively calls for a revolution to reverse our automobile-dependency. Citing successful efforts in places from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, Kay shows us that radical change is not impossible by any means. She demonstrates that there are economic, political, architectural, and personal solutions that can steer us out of the mess. Asphalt Nation is essential reading for everyone interested in the history of our relationship with the car, and in the prospect of returning to a world of human mobility.
Download or read book Roadside America written by Lucinda Lewis and published by Harry N. Abrams. This book was released on 2000-10-01 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both the most complete survey available of 20th-century American cars & a glorious, nostalgic photographic portrait of the icons of roadside America.
Download or read book Driving Women written by Deborah Clarke and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2007-04-15 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher description
Download or read book The Automobile Age written by James J. Flink and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1990-07-19 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this sweeping cultural history, James Flink provides a fascinating account of the creation of the world's first automobile culture. He offers both a critical survey of the development of automotive technology and the automotive industry and an analysis of the social effects of "automobility" on workers and consumers.
Download or read book The American Heritage History of the Automobile in America written by Stephen W. Sears and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Republic of Drivers written by Cotten Seiler and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-05-15 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rising gas prices, sprawl and congestion, global warming, even obesity—driving is a factor in many of the most contentious issues of our time. So how did we get here? How did automobile use become so vital to the identity of Americans? Republic of Drivers looks back at the period between 1895 and 1961—from the founding of the first automobile factory in America to the creation of the Interstate Highway System—to find out how driving evolved into a crucial symbol of freedom and agency. Cotten Seiler combs through a vast number of historical, social scientific, philosophical, and literary sources to illustrate the importance of driving to modern American conceptions of the self and the social and political order. He finds that as the figure of the driver blurred into the figure of the citizen, automobility became a powerful resource for women, African Americans, and others seeking entry into the public sphere. And yet, he argues, the individualistic but anonymous act of driving has also monopolized our thinking about freedom and democracy, discouraging the crafting of a more sustainable way of life. As our fantasies of the open road turn into fears of a looming energy crisis, Seiler shows us just how we ended up a republic of drivers—and where we might be headed.
Download or read book Driving Around the USA written by Martin W. Sandler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-12-04 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Capturing the excitement of a nation as it became a driving force -- in more ways than one -- Driving Around America is the story of how America's romantic, restless spirit found its counterpart in the automobile. With Henry Ford's assembly lines lowering the price of cars, ordinary people began to travel where and when they pleased with a freedom never before known -- and the nation would never be the same. People moved farther from their work, creating suburbs; the demand for gasoline increased, spurring the growth of the petroleum industry; and individual members of families moved far from each other, changing the social fabric of the nation. From the auto's early beginnings to the commonplace use of cars in all aspects of life today, Driving Around America is a fascinating portrait of how America transformed as its citizens were on the move more and more.
Download or read book Policing the Open Road written by Sarah A. Seo and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Policing the Open Road examines how the rise of the car, that symbol of American personal freedom, inadvertently led to ever more intrusive policing--with disastrous consequences for racial equality in our criminal justice system. When Americans think of freedom, they often picture the open road. Yet nowhere are we more likely to encounter the long arm of the law than in our cars. Sarah Seo reveals how the rise of the automobile transformed American freedom in radical ways, leading us to accept--and expect--pervasive police power. As Policing the Open Road makes clear, this expectation has had far-reaching political and legal consequences.--
Download or read book The People s Car written by Bernhard Rieger and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the Berlin Auto Show in 1938, Adolf Hitler presented the prototype for a small, oddly shaped, inexpensive family car that all good Aryans could enjoy. Decades later, that automobile—the Volkswagen Beetle—was one of the most beloved in the world. Bernhard Rieger examines culture and technology, politics and economics, and industrial design and advertising genius to reveal how a car commissioned by Hitler and designed by Ferdinand Porsche became an exceptional global commodity on a par with Coca-Cola. Beyond its quality and low cost, the Beetle’s success hinged on its uncanny ability to capture the imaginations of people across nations and cultures. In West Germany, it came to stand for the postwar “economic miracle” and helped propel Europe into the age of mass motorization. In the United States, it was embraced in the suburbs, and then prized by the hippie counterculture as an antidote to suburban conformity. As its popularity waned in the First World, the Beetle crawled across Mexico and Latin America, where it symbolized a sturdy toughness necessary to thrive amid economic instability. Drawing from a wealth of sources in multiple languages, The People’s Car presents an international cast of characters—executives and engineers, journalists and advertisers, assembly line workers and car collectors, and everyday drivers—who made the Beetle into a global icon. The Beetle’s improbable story as a failed prestige project of the Third Reich which became a world-renowned brand illuminates the multiple origins, creative adaptations, and persisting inequalities that characterized twentieth-century globalization.
Download or read book The Automobile and American Life 2d ed written by John Heitmann and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-07-31 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now revised and updated, this book tells the story of how the automobile transformed American life and how automotive design and technology have changed over time. It details cars' inception as a mechanical curiosity and later a plaything for the wealthy; racing and the promotion of the industry; Henry Ford and the advent of mass production; market competition during the 1920s; the development of roads and accompanying highway culture; the effects of the Great Depression and World War II; the automotive Golden Age of the 1950s; oil crises and the turbulent 1970s; the decline and then resurgence of the Big Three; and how American car culture has been represented in film, music and literature. Updated notes and a select bibliography serve as valuable resources to those interested in automotive history.
Download or read book Hell on Wheels written by David Blanke and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating look at the rise and growing popularity of the automobile during the first half of twentieth-century America, which brought with it a dark undercurrent. On the one hand, Americans embraced the newfound sense of freedom and mobility embodied by the automobile; on the other, they grew increasingly anxious about and fearful of the enormous threat that cars--and car accidents--posed to public safety.
Download or read book Taking Charge written by Michael Schiffer and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2010-06-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tumultuous history of inventors and corporations who have tried to bring the electric car to the market. Amazingly, in 1900 28 percent of all cars were electric. By 1920 the electric car had all but vanished and gas-powered cars dominated the market. In Taking Charge, Schiffer deftly explores how cultural factors, not technological ones, explain the rise of gas-guzzling cars. Schiffer brings the history of the electric car into the present, arguing that despite the Detroit Big Three’s reluctance to make electric cars, their time has finally arrived.
Download or read book Are We There Yet The American Automobile Past Present and Driverless written by Dan Albert and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tech giants and automakers have been teaching robots to drive. Robot-controlled cars have already logged millions of miles. These technological marvels promise cleaner air, smoother traffic, and tens of thousands of lives saved. But even if robots turn into responsible drivers, are we ready to be a nation of passengers? In Are We There Yet?, Dan Albert combines historical scholarship with personal narrative to explore how car culture has suffused America’s DNA. The plain, old-fashioned, human-driven car built our economy, won our wars, and shaped our democratic creed as it moved us about. Driver’s ed made teenagers into citizens; auto repair made boys into men. Crusades against the automobile are nothing new. Its arrival sparked battles over street space, pitting the masses against the millionaires who terrorized pedestrians. When the masses got cars of their own, they learned to love driving too. During World War II, Washington nationalized Detroit and postwar Americans embraced car and country as if they were one. Then came 1960s environmentalism and the energy crises of the 1970s. Many predicted, even welcomed, the death of the automobile. But many more rose to its defense. They embraced trucker culture and took to Citizen Band radios, demanding enough gas to keep their big boats afloat. Since the 1980s, the car culture has triumphed and we now drive more miles than ever before. Have we reached the end of the road this time? Fewer young people are learning to drive. Ride hailing is replacing car buying, and with electrification a long and noble tradition of amateur car repair—to say nothing of the visceral sound of gasoline exploding inside a big V8—will come to an end. When a robot takes over the driver’s seat, what’s to become of us? Are We There Yet? carries us from muddy tracks to superhighways, from horseless buggies to driverless electric vehicles. Like any good road trip, it’s an adventure so fun you don’t even notice how much you’ve learned along the way.
Download or read book The Automobile in American History and Culture written by Michael L. Berger and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2001-07-30 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive reference guide reviews the literature concerning the impact of the automobile on American social, economic, and political history. Covering the complete history of the automobile to date, twelve chapters of bibliographic essays describe the important works in a series of related topics and provide broad thematic contexts. This work includes general histories of the automobile, the industry it spawned and labor-management relations, as well as biographies of famous automotive personalities. Focusing on books concerned with various social aspects, chapters discuss such issues as the car's influence on family life, youth, women, the elderly, minorities, literature, and leisure and recreation. Berger has also included works that investigate the government's role in aiding and regulating the automobile, with sections on roads and highways, safety, and pollution. The guide concludes with an overview of reference works and periodicals in the field and a description of selected research collections. The Automobile in American History and Culture provides a resource with which to examine the entire field and its structure. Popular culture scholars and enthusiasts involved in automotive research will appreciate the extensive scope of this reference. Cross-referenced throughout, it will serve as a valuable research tool.
