Automobile: How the Car Changed Life Book

On the eve of the Wall Street crash, Herbert Hoover was reported to have promised America "a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot". Auto Mobile: How the Car Changed Life, Ruth Brandon's entertaining and informative survey of the car, shows that while even in the land of plenty poverty has not been eradicated, car culture has become ubiquitous. Brandon takes the reader from the early days of motoring when arrogant aristocrats and bored plutocrats raced and toured in what was a minority pursuit, through the golden years of the affordable auto--the Model T Ford in America, the VW in Nazi Germany, the Morris in England--through town planning and the coming of freeways, on to the age of excess (Chevvies and De Lorean) and down to current concerns with ozone, oil and obesity. The author is very good at bringing out just how many urban and communication problems the advent of the car solved, as well as created, and she also exposes with clarity the differences between the utilitarian American obsession with value for money and the European preoccupation with style. The book fizzes with interesting observations and speculations, the technical history of motor manufacture is put into plain English and the illustrations, although somewhat poorly reproduced, are always apposite. Sometimes the author does veer off the point altogether, as though she has spotted another unmissable diversion along the route. And while the book deals with what is probably too familiar a subject and material to make it a quirky classic, readers should have no trouble enjoying the ride and learning a lot along the way. --Miles TaylorRead More