The Automobile and American Life, 2d ed.
The Automobile and American Life, 2d ed.

Author: John Heitmann

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2018-08-14

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 147666935X

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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.

Driving Around the USA
Driving Around the USA

Author: Martin W. Sandler

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2003-12-04

Total Pages: 66

ISBN-13: 0195132300

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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.

America’s Other Automakers
America’s Other Automakers

Author: Timothy J. Minchin

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2021-04-01

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 0820358932

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In 2018 almost half of all vehicles made in North America were produced at foreign-owned plants, and the sector was on track to monopolize the market. Despite this, the industry has been overlooked compared with its domestic counterpart, both in scholarship and popular memory. Redressing this neglect, America’s Other Automakers provides a new history of the foreignowned auto sector, the first to extensively draw on archival sources and to articulate the human agency of participants, including workers, managers, and industry recruiters. Timothy J. Minchin challenges the view that the industry’s growth primarily reflected incentives, stressing human agency and the complexity of individual stories instead. Deeply human in its approach, the book also explores the industry’s impact on grassroots communities, showing that it had more costs than supporters acknowledged. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, America’s Other Automakers uncovers significant tensions over unionization, reports of discriminatory hiring, and unease about the industry’s rapid growth, critically exploring seven large assembly facilities and their impact on the communities in which they were built.

Comeback
Comeback

Author: Paul Ingrassia

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2013-05-14

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13: 1476737479

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In Comeback, Pulitzer Prize-winners Paul Ingrassia and Joseph B. White take us to the boardrooms, the executive offices, and the shop floors of the auto business to reconstruct, in riveting detail, how America's premier industry stumbled, fell, and picked itself up again. The story begins in 1982, when Honda started building cars in Marysville, Ohio, and the entire U.S. car industry seemed to be on the brink of extinction. It ends just over a decade later, with a remarkable turn of the tables, as Japan's car industry falters and America's Big Three emerge as formidable global competitors. Comeback is a story propelled by larger-than-life characters -- Lee Iacocca, Henry Ford II, Don Petersen, Roger Smith, among many others -- and their greed, pride, and sheer refusal to face facts. But it is also a story full of dedicated, unlikely heroes who struggled to make the Big Three change before it was too late.

The Great Book of American Automobiles
The Great Book of American Automobiles

Author: Andrew Montgomery

Publisher: Motorbooks International

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 9780760314760

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Explore this encyclopedia of cars complemented by an exciting story about the social and economic climate of American culture. This massive 512 page book charts the progress of the automobile in America from 1907, through the explosive automotive creativity of the fifties and the renaissance of the nineties, and on to the future of the industry. It highlights the work of the big three, Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors, and also covers the smaller companies that didn't survive the thirties and forties like Crosley, Packard and Studebaker.The history of the automobile in America is in many ways the story of the American dream. The best and the worst, the successes and the failures, the classics and the bizarre - the cars that America has taken to her heart have defined American culture.The ten years following World War I in America saw the birth of mobility for the masses as car ownership changed from being a privilege of a wealthy minority to an essential part of the American way of life. Hardcover, 9" x 12", 512 pages, 500 color & 20 b/w photos

Republic of Drivers
Republic of Drivers

Author: Cotten Seiler

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2009-05-15

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0226745651

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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.

Automobiles of America
Automobiles of America

Author: American Automobile Manufacturers Association

Publisher: Cars & Parts

Published: 1997-07

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781880524213

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As we close the door on the first 100 years of the American auto industry, this book serves as an overview of the rise of that industry. Filled with significant events in the first 100 years of the automobile, this volume presents biographical sketches of

The Automobile in American History and Culture
The Automobile in American History and Culture

Author: Michael L. Berger

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2001-07-30

Total Pages: 516

ISBN-13: 0313016062

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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.