The Life Of The Automobile

Author : Steven Parissien
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1466836237
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.35/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Life of the Automobile written by Steven Parissien and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-05-13 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Life of the Automobile is the first comprehensive world history of the car. The automobile has arguably shaped the modern era more profoundly than any other human invention, and author Steven Parissien examines the impact, development, and significance of the automobile over its turbulent and colorful 130-year history. Readers learn the grand and turbulent history of the motor car, from its earliest appearance in the 1880s—as little more than a powered quadricycle—and the innovations of the early pioneer carmakers. The author examines the advances of the interwar era, the Golden Age of the 1950s, and the iconic years of the 1960s to the decades of doubt and uncertainty following the oil crisis of 1973, the global mergers of the 1990s, the bailouts of the early twenty-first century, and the emergence of the electric car. This is not just a story of horsepower and performance but a tale of extraordinary people: of intuitive carmakers such as Karl Benz, Sir Henry Royce, Giovanni Agnelli (Fiat), André Citroën, and Louis Renault; of exceptionally gifted designers such as the eccentric, Ohio-born Chris Bangle (BMW); and of visionary industrialists such as Henry Ford, Ferdinand Porsche (the Volkswagen Beetle), and Gene Bordinat (the Ford Mustang), among numerous other game changers. Above all, this comprehensive history demonstrates how the epic story of the car mirrors the history of the modern era, from the brave hopes and soaring ambitions of the early twentieth century to the cynicism and ecological concerns of a century later. Bringing to life the flamboyant entrepreneurs, shrewd businessmen, and gifted engineers that worked behind the scenes to bring us horsepower and performance, The Life of the Automobile is a globe-spanning account of the auto industry that is sure to rev the engines of entrepreneurs and gearheads alike.

Author : John Heitmann
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 147666935X
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

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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.

Author : Ilʹi︠a︡ Ėrenburg
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 246 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Life of the Automobile written by Ilʹi︠a︡ Ėrenburg and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ehrenburg, a top Soviet propagandist, captures not only how man becomes an extension of the machine on the line, but how each and every person involved in the process--from worker to car owner to the head of Citroen himself--is a slave to the machine of capitalism. Ehrenburg's characters make choices. In the context of very commercial modern America today, Ehrenburg's characters seem to be leading unexamined lives, and thus their choices, as much as the system, leads to their unhappiness.

Author : Lewis H. Siegelbaum
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801461484
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Cars for Comrades written by Lewis H. Siegelbaum and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-15 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The automobile and Soviet communism made an odd couple. The quintessential symbol of American economic might and consumerism never achieved iconic status as an engine of Communist progress, in part because it posed an awkward challenge to some basic assumptions of Soviet ideology and practice. In this rich and often witty book, Lewis H. Siegelbaum recounts the life of the Soviet automobile and in the process gives us a fresh perspective on the history and fate of the USSR itself. Based on sources ranging from official state archives to cartoons, car-enthusiast magazines, and popular films, Cars for Comrades takes us from the construction of the huge "Soviet Detroits," emblems of the utopian phase of Soviet planning, to present-day Togliatti, where the fate of Russia's last auto plant hangs in the balance. The large role played by American businessmen and engineers in the checkered history of Soviet automobile manufacture is one of the book's surprises, and the author points up the ironic parallels between the Soviet story and the decline of the American Detroit. In the interwar years, automobile clubs, car magazines, and the popularity of rally races were signs of a nascent Soviet car culture, its growth slowed by the policies of the Stalinist state and by Russia's intractable "roadlessness." In the postwar years cars appeared with greater frequency in songs, movies, novels, and in propaganda that promised to do better than car-crazy America. Ultimately, Siegelbaum shows, the automobile epitomized and exacerbated the contradictions between what Soviet communism encouraged and what it provided. To need a car was a mark of support for industrial goals; to want a car for its own sake was something else entirely. Because Soviet cars were both hard to get and chronically unreliable, and such items as gasoline and spare parts so scarce, owning and maintaining them enmeshed citizens in networks of private, semi-illegal, and ideologically heterodox practices that the state was helpless to combat. Deeply researched and engagingly told, this masterful and entertaining biography of the Soviet automobile provides a new perspective on one of the twentieth century's most iconic—and important—technologies and a novel approach to understanding the history of the Soviet Union itself.

Author : Iiya G. Ehrenburg
Publisher : Serpent's Tail
ISBN 13 : 9781852421304
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Life of the Automobile written by Iiya G. Ehrenburg and published by Serpent's Tail. This book was released on 1990-04 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published seventy years ago, The Life of the Automobile is the novel of the consumer dream. Flamboyant characters like Henry Ford, J. P. Morgan and Andr? Citro?n move in and out of its pages and so, too, do the unhappy victims of the first crash and the first strikes in the car plants. Written at a time when confidence in science was supreme, The Life of the Automobile uncannily predicts the rise and fall of our romance with the car: it is as relevant now as when it was first published.

Author : Cotten Seiler
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226745651
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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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.

Author : Ralph Nader
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 277 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Unsafe at Any Speed written by Ralph Nader and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Christopher W. Wells
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 0295804475
Total Pages : 465 pages
Book Rating : 4.77/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Car Country written by Christopher W. Wells and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2013-05-15 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For most people in the United States, going almost anywhere begins with reaching for the car keys. This is true, Christopher Wells argues, because the United States is Car Country—a nation dominated by landscapes that are difficult, inconvenient, and often unsafe to navigate by those who are not sitting behind the wheel of a car. The prevalence of car-dependent landscapes seems perfectly natural to us today, but it is, in fact, a relatively new historical development. In Car Country, Wells rejects the idea that the nation's automotive status quo can be explained as a simple byproduct of an ardent love affair with the automobile. Instead, he takes readers on a tour of the evolving American landscape, charting the ways that transportation policies and land-use practices have combined to reshape nearly every element of the built environment around the easy movement of automobiles. Wells untangles the complicated relationships between automobiles and the environment, allowing readers to see the everyday world in a completely new way. The result is a history that is essential for understanding American transportation and land-use issues today. Watch the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48LTKOxxrXQ

Author : Neil Young
Publisher : Plume
ISBN 13 : 014751651X
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Special Deluxe written by Neil Young and published by Plume. This book was released on 2015-12 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quirky and wonderfully candid, Neil Young's second book of reminiscences is as compelling as his first book. He returns with more unforgettable stories about his six decades in the music business - but this is not your average rock biography. He centres this work on one of his life's passions, cars, using the framework of all the cars he's ever owned to construct a narrative of his life and career, exploring and demonstrating how memories are attached to objects. Young also expresses regret for the environmental impact of his past cars, and now passionately advocates the use of clean energy. 'Special Deluxe' is a mix of memoir and environmental politics by one of the most gifted and influential artists of our time.

Author : Dorothy Levitt
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Woman and the Car written by Dorothy Levitt and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: