The Automobile: A Chronology of Its Antecedents, Development, and Impact

(Hardback)

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Description

This 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, gasoline/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 as well as anyone who has ever asked "When did Japan export the first car to the US" or "When and how was smog discovered" or "What make of car did Chuck Berry drive".

Reviews

"Clay McShane's book of automotive milestones is both a delight to peruse and a fine source of scholarly information. His study of the car culture that permeates our lives manages to record not only the historic highlights but the neglected events that reflect the wide ranging impact of the automobile on American society. I found his insights and perceptions indispensible to my own research and consider their publication a major contribution to American technological, social, and political and architectural history."-Jane Holtz Kay Author Asphalt Nation Architecture/planning critic of The Nation
.,."this is a useful book that will provide some quick answers to questions about automobilies at the reference desk in high-school, public, and academic libraries. It is also an interesting book to browse."-Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin
...this is a useful book that will provide some quick answers to questions about automobilies at the reference desk in high-school, public, and academic libraries. It is also an interesting book to browse.-Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin
There is so much interesting information in this small volume that it is a pleasure to just thumb through....for the increasing number of faculty teaching automobile history courses, this will be an interesting and valuable tool.-Choice
This book has answers to questions you didn't know you had.-The Flying Lady
"There is so much interesting information in this small volume that it is a pleasure to just thumb through....for the increasing number of faculty teaching automobile history courses, this will be an interesting and valuable tool."-Choice
"This book has answers to questions you didn't know you had."-The Flying Lady
..."this is a useful book that will provide some quick answers to questions about automobilies at the reference desk in high-school, public, and academic libraries. It is also an interesting book to browse."-Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin

Author Bio

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.