Description
Book SynopsisThis comprehensive chronology of the automobile covers its engineering as well as the social, cultural and political impact of the car from the invention of the wheel to the O.J. Simpson car chase. It examines the auto industry, the road and roadside, the car in popular culture, fuel history, the spatial transformation of cities, air pollution, critics of car culture, traffic accidents, the globalization of car culture, and much more. This is a reference guide for students and scholars of transportation history and for anyone with an interest in the development of automobiles.
Clay McShane is Professor of History at Northeastern University and a noted authority on transportation history. Among his earlier publications is Down the Asphalt Path: American Cities and the Automobile.
Trade Review'A book that deserves to be noticed.' Contemporary Review 'It is a book which is impossible both to read in the ordinary sense, or to put down. Professor McShane has listed, in short, staccato sentences, every event in the history of the car, and its predecessors, which a thorough search of the literature and newspaper files has given him, and a fascinating story it is.' Traffic is Other People
Table of ContentsTables, Preface, Acknowledgments, Prelude to 1885, From Benz to Ford: 1886-1907, The Model T Era: 1908-1926, Peace and War: 1927-1945, The Age of Muscle and Smog: 1946-1964, End of the Honeymoon: 1965-1980, Revival: 1981-1994, Appendix A: Tables, Appendix B: North American Car Museums, Index
