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Book Fins

    Book Details:
  • Author : William Knoedelseder
  • Publisher : HarperCollins
  • Release : 2018-09-18
  • ISBN : 0062289098
  • Pages : 336 pages

Download or read book Fins written by William Knoedelseder and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-09-18 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times bestselling author of Bitter Brew chronicles the birth and rise to greatness of the American auto industry through the remarkable life of Harley Earl, an eccentric six-foot-five, stuttering visionary who dropped out of college and went on to invent the profession of automobile styling, thereby revolutionized the way cars were made, marketed, and even imagined. Harleys Earl’s story qualifies as a bona fide American family saga. It began in the Michigan pine forest in the years after the Civil War, traveled across the Great Plains on the wooden wheels of a covered wagon, and eventually settled in a dirt road village named Hollywood, California, where young Harley took the skills he learned working in his father’s carriage shop and applied them to designing sleek, racy-looking automobile bodies for the fast crowd in the burgeoning silent movie business. As the 1920s roared with the sound of mass manufacturing, Harley returned to Michigan, where, at GM’s invitation, he introduced art into the rigid mechanics of auto-making. Over the next thirty years, he functioned as a kind of combination Steve Jobs and Tom Ford of his time, redefining the form and function of the country’s premier product. His impact was profound. When he retired as GM’s VP of Styling in 1958, Detroit reigned as the manufacturing capitol of the world and General Motors ranked as the most successful company in the history of business. Knoedelseder tells the story in ways both large and small, weaving the history of the company with the history of Detroit and the Earl family as Fins examines the effect of the automobile on America’s economy, culture, and national psyche.

Book The Cars of Harley Earl

Download or read book The Cars of Harley Earl written by David W Temple and published by CarTech Inc. This book was released on 2016-05-16 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At 6-foot, 3-inches tall, Harley Earl was an imposing figure, but his true stature lies in his towering talent for automotive design and styling. Over his 50-year career, he created as well as collaborated on the most innovative, bold, technologically advanced cars made by General Motors. As a titan of American auto design, the cars he helped create are still celebrated today. And as an enduring legacy, he inspired a generation of engineers, designers, and stylists. Veteran automotive historian David W. Temple has researched and unearthed the complete story of Harley Earl’s cars, his notable design achievements, and many accolades. Working as a coachbuilder at his father's Earl Automotive Works in Hollywood, California, the young Earl learned his trade. After styling the 1927 LaSalle for GM president Alfred P. Sloan, Earl rose to prominence and ran the newly created department of Art and Color. Automobile design stagnated during the Depression and World War II, but the number of his contributions to the automotive world in the 1950s is staggering. When the jet age hit, he fully embraced aviation design and infused it into GM cars. The Buick Y-Job and GM Le Sabre featured many firsts in automotive design and hardware. The Y-Job's fender extensions trailing over the doors, disappearing headlamps, flush door handles, a metal cover over the convertible top were a few innovations. When General Motors needed to show off its cars and technology, Harley Earl-designed cars were the stars of the Motorama show that toured the country from 1949 to 1961. He led the team that created the 1953 Corvette, and this iconic American sports car is still going strong today. He was involved in the creation of the 1955-1957 Chevy Bel Air, otherwise known as the Tri-Five Chevy. Harley Earl's drive toward bold and innovative design spurred American car design during the mid-twentieth century. His distinctive designs defined the 1950s finned cars and set American automotive design on the path it has followed into the modern era. With this in-depth examination, you learn the inside story of these remarkable cars and the man behind them. It’s an essential addition to any automotive library.

Book Harley Earl and the Dream Machine

Download or read book Harley Earl and the Dream Machine written by Stephen Bayley and published by Alfred A. Knopf. This book was released on 1983 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Harley Earl

    Book Details:
  • Author : Stephen Bayley
  • Publisher : Taplinger Publishing Company
  • Release : 1991
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 168 pages

Download or read book Harley Earl written by Stephen Bayley and published by Taplinger Publishing Company. This book was released on 1991 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If Henry Ford said, You can have it any color as long as it is black, the rejoinder came from Harley Earl. He was the man who gave the American car of the 1950's its distinctive flash and swagger, all tailfins, twotone color and chrome.

Book General Motors

    Book Details:
  • Author : Michael W. R. Davis
  • Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
  • Release : 1999
  • ISBN : 9780738500195
  • Pages : 132 pages

Download or read book General Motors written by Michael W. R. Davis and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 1999 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The General Motors Corporation was established in 1908 by William C. Durant, who combined the Buick, Oldsmobile, and Oakland companies and, later, Cadillac, to form GM. From the 1920s onwards, GM grew from a firm that accounted for about 10% of new car sales in the U.S. to become the largest producer of cars and trucks in the world. The peak of the company's power and market dominance came in the 1960s, which proved to be the decade of change for the U.S. auto industry. With the introduction of federal safety regulations and control tailpipe emissions, GM's position as the world's largest industrial corporation changed. Its marketing strategy was undone by competitive challenges, and the business was never to be the same again. General Motors: A Photographic History explores the growth of the company in a series of over 200 black-and-white images. From the first assembly line to post-Second World War recovery, images from the world auto shows and the consequent re-organization of GM take the reader on an intriguing visual tour of a tremendously important era in the industrialization of America.

Book Women in Design

    Book Details:
  • Author : Charlotte Fiell
  • Publisher : Laurence King Publishing
  • Release : 2019-10-29
  • ISBN : 9781786275318
  • Pages : 256 pages

Download or read book Women in Design written by Charlotte Fiell and published by Laurence King Publishing. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Offering an alternative, female–focused history, Women in Design is an essential new tome dedicated to the innovators who have shaped the design world" – ELLE Decoration Featuring more than 100 profiles of pioneering women designers, some who have achieved global recognition such as Ray Eames, Charlotte Perriand and Zaha Hadid, it also introduces the fascinating and often untold stories of lesser–known designers, who have similarly shaped and enriched the story of design. An excerpt from the book: "This book is, first and foremost, a celebration of some truly remarkable women whose careers in design have been exceptional. They can rightly be called exceptional because, despite the odds stacked against them, the women featured here created significant bodies of work within what was – and to a certain extent still is – the male–dominated field of design. By highlighting their extraordinary achievements, our intention is to contextualize the role of women in design over the last one hundred years or so in order to trace how the status of female designers has evolved, while at the same time assessing where it stands today. In the past, all too often the work of female designers was overlooked in the literature on design, while also being woefully under–represented in exhibitions and museum collections. This book seeks to redress these outstanding omissions. The primary reasons for this paucity of representation are that – as in other male–dominated professions – women were often either largely excluded from certain areas of endeavour or had no option but to take on subordinate roles. Women designers and their work have, also, all too often been assessed through the lens of the patriarchy, meaning they have either been entirely defined by their gender or their contributions have been subsumed under that of their 'more famous' husbands, brothers, fathers or lovers. This book attempts to tell a very different story, one that appraises their activities within the wider landscape of the feminist movement – both past and present. It is only now that women designers working in developed free–market economies are beginning to enjoy anything like equality with their male counterparts when it comes to professional access and recognition, let alone parity of remuneration. As for women living elsewhere in the world, having any kind of professional career, let alone one in design, is still often largely an impossible dream."

Book Engines of Change

    Book Details:
  • Author : Paul Ingrassia
  • Publisher : Simon and Schuster
  • Release : 2012-05-01
  • ISBN : 145164065X
  • Pages : 402 pages

Download or read book Engines of Change written by Paul Ingrassia and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A narrative like no other: a cultural history that explores how cars have both propelled and reflected the American experience— from the Model T to the Prius. From the assembly lines of Henry Ford to the open roads of Route 66, from the lore of Jack Kerouac to the sex appeal of the Hot Rod, America’s history is a vehicular history—an idea brought brilliantly to life in this major work by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Paul Ingrassia. Ingrassia offers a wondrous epic in fifteen automobiles, including the Corvette, the Beetle, and the Chevy Corvair, as well as the personalities and tales behind them: Robert McNamara’s unlikely role in Lee Iacocca’s Mustang, John Z. DeLorean’s Pontiac GTO , Henry Ford’s Model T, as well as Honda’s Accord, the BMW 3 Series, and the Jeep, among others. Through these cars and these characters, Ingrassia shows how the car has expressed the particularly American tension between the lure of freedom and the obligations of utility. He also takes us through the rise of American manufacturing, the suburbanization of the country, the birth of the hippie and the yuppie, the emancipation of women, and many more fateful episodes and eras, including the car’s unintended consequences: trial lawyers, energy crises, and urban sprawl. Narrative history of the highest caliber, Engines of Change is an entirely edifying new way to look at the American story.

Book Corvette Concept Cars

Download or read book Corvette Concept Cars written by Scott Kolecki and published by CarTech Inc. This book was released on 2022-05-15 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than a half century, the Corvette has been celebrated as “America’s sports car” by owners and enthusiasts. Since the first model rolled off the assembly line on June 29, 1953, it has been transformed time and again from a well-intentioned-but-underpowered boulevard cruiser into one of the most iconic sports cars of all time! How did Harley Earl’s original vision for a two-seat sports car progress through eight distinct generations to become the car that we know and love today? Who were the visionaries responsible for advancing its form and function over the last 70 years? Also, why has the Corvette continued to find commercial success in an ever-changing marketplace when so many other automobiles have come and gone since its creation? Corvette Concept Cars: Developing America's Favorite Sports Car answers these questions by delving into the origins of the Chevrolet Corvette and of the countless designers, engineers, drivers, and dreamers responsible for its creation. It explores the personal histories of Corvette’s greatest visionaries (Harley Earl, Zora Arkus-Duntov, and Bill Mitchell) and tells how each of their fates were indelibly intertwined with the rich (and sometimes volatile) history of Chevrolet’s flagship sports car. This book is an exploration of the Corvette concept cars from the earliest turnstile dream cars and purpose-built racers to the many unique mid-engined concept and research vehicles that preceded the creation of the current production model: the eighth-generation mid-engine Stingray. Painstakingly researched and written by Corvette historian Scott Kolecki and packed with more than 400 incredible photographs, Corvette Concept Cars: Developing America’s Favorite Sports Car is the quintessential history of the evolution of the Chevrolet Corvette!

Book General Motors Styling 1927 1958

Download or read book General Motors Styling 1927 1958 written by Tracy Powell and published by . This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: General Motors styling 1927-1958 walks through the "Harley Earl era" of automotive styling, with research and interviews that go beyond Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac, and into the extravagant dream cars and Motoramas of the '50s. Giant personalities include those who would later leave GM to make names for themselves elsewhere: Frank Hershey, Virgil Exner, Gordon Buehrig and others.

Book The Harleian Miscellany

Download or read book The Harleian Miscellany written by William Oldys and published by . This book was released on 1808 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Maestro  Bill Mitchell and the Iconic Cars of GM Styling

Download or read book Maestro Bill Mitchell and the Iconic Cars of GM Styling written by Roy Lonberger and published by . This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insider's look at the Golden Age of Automobile Design at General Motors during the leadership of Bill Mitchell, VP Design (1958-1977). Mitchell elevated design as a marketing tool resulting in General Motors establishing itself as the leading world corporation, and his Iconic cars sold over 136 million (including Corvette, Camaro, Riviera, and Toronado). Mitchell is regarded as the man who singlehandedly saved Corvette.Written by Roy Lonberger, who worked directly for Mitchell as head of his secret Studio-X, this 1st edition book of 440 pages has unique insights into the man, rare designer sketches, clay models, and secret photographs of the unique design process. Five years in preparation and with the help and license from GM Archive, this book is a must read for car enthusiasts, design students, and business managers.

Book GM s Motorama

Download or read book GM s Motorama written by David W. Temple and published by Motorbooks. This book was released on 2006 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the eight GM Motoramas staged between 1949 and 1961, featuring the cars introduced at these extravaganzas--including the Corvette prototype.

Book Corvette Sting Ray

Download or read book Corvette Sting Ray written by Peter Brock and published by Brock Racing Enterprises. This book was released on 2013 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2013 Motor Press Guild's prestigious Dean Batchelor Award for Best Automotive Journalism across all categories of video/film, books, articles and photography, this book tells the fascinating inside story behind the creation of the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray as told by the last remaining GM Designer who was part of its design.

Book Flight Thru Instruments

    Book Details:
  • Author : United States Naval Operations Office (Navy Department)
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 1945
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 152 pages

Download or read book Flight Thru Instruments written by United States Naval Operations Office (Navy Department) and published by . This book was released on 1945 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book The Letters of Daniel Defoe

Download or read book The Letters of Daniel Defoe written by Daniel Defoe and published by . This book was released on 1956-01-06 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A scholarly edition of letters by Daniel Defoe. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

Book Damsels in Design

    Book Details:
  • Author : Constance Smith
  • Publisher : Schiffer Publishing
  • Release : 2018-02
  • ISBN : 9780764354359
  • Pages : 192 pages

Download or read book Damsels in Design written by Constance Smith and published by Schiffer Publishing. This book was released on 2018-02 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the mid-1950s, an innovative group of women at General Motors (dubbed the Damsels of Design by marketers) and their counterparts at Ford, Hudson, Studebaker, Packard, and Tucker changed automotive history forever. Read the untold story of the women who excelled in the Mad Men era of automobile and industrial design. Recruited by top CEOs at automotive companies, they developed many of the products we take for granted today. Learn about Helene Rother, who designed the instrument panel, hardware, and seat construction for midcentury Cadillacs; Elizabeth Thatcher Oros, the first female trained in industrial design; and discover the history behind the child safety seat latch and car doors with lights. An extraordinary story of exceptional women, Damsels in Design sheds light on those who have too long been in the shadows.

Book The Art and Colour of General Motors

Download or read book The Art and Colour of General Motors written by Jonathan A. Stein and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published at the 100th Anniversary of General Motors, featuring the photography of iconic classic car photographer Michael Furman, and lively, entertaining essays by America's most distinguished classic car historians and journalists.