Taking Charge: The Electric Automobile in America

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Amazingly, in 1900 28 percent of all cars were electric. By 1920 the electric car had all but vanished and gas-powered cars dominated the market. In this book, Schiffer explores how cultural factors, not technological ones, explain the rise of gas-guzzling cars. For this edition, Schiffer brings the history of the electric car into the present, arguing that despite the Detroit Big Three's reluctance to make electric cars, their time has finally arrived.

Reviews

A cracking good read.Technology and Culture

The car of the future turns out to be the car of the past, according to Schiffer in this peppy look at the electric cars Edwardian infancy.Kirkus Reviews

Much more than a historical overview, Schiffer puts his anthropology training to good effect in the text, livening his recitation with fascinating details about contemporary personalities and cultural settings. His volume provides the best insight to date of how and why electric vehicles faltered [in the past], and why that result was due more to culture than technology.Environment

Part car-nut's history, part social history, this is a fine resource for popular culture and American Studies collections.Booklist

Author Bio

Michael Brian Schiffer is professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson and the author of seven books, including The Portable Radio in American Life (1991).