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The automobile and American life / John A. Heitmann.
LIBRA HD9710.U52 H39 2009
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Heitmann, John Alfred.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Automobile industry and trade--United States--History.
- Automobile industry and trade.
- Automobile industry and trade--Social aspects.
- History.
- United States.
- Automobile industry and trade--Social aspects--United States--History.
- Physical Description:
- xi, 248 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., [2009]
- Summary:
- "The book covers the automobile from inception and later a plaything for the well-to-do; Henry Ford and the machine age; competition in the 1920s; road culture; religion, gender, courtship and sex; Great Depression; World War II; 1950s and youth culture, hot rod and rock and roll; societal changes in the 1960s; and changes since 1980"--Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- 1 Beginnings: From a Mechanical Curiosity to a Plaything for the Well-to-Do 9
- European by Birth, American by Adoption 9
- Technological Antecedents: The Bicycle 11
- Compact Power: The Internal Combustion Engine 14
- Choices Made: Competition from Steam Engines and Electric Motors 15
- American Pioneers 18
- Organization as Power 20
- The Automobile for Better or Worse? 22
- Music Galore 26
- The Mechanical Arts and the Coming of the Machine Age 27
- The Quest for Speed 30
- 2 The Inscrutable Henry Ford and the Rise of the Machine Age 32
- From a Dearborn Farm to the World Stage 33
- Frederick Winslow Taylor and "One Best Way" 36
- The Genesis of Mass Production at Highland Park 36
- The Flivver King 42
- The Model T: What a Car! 44
- Later Years: Hero or Anti-Hero? 46
- Gone in Sixty Seconds: Joy-Riders and Criminals 47
- 3 The Rise of the Competition and the Consumer During the 1920s 54
- Billy Durant and "Silent" Sloan 54
- Kettering, Earl, and "Keeping the Customer Dissatisfied" 56
- The City of the Future and Dynamic Dayton of the 1930s 63
- The Last of the Big Three: The Chrysler Corporation 64
- The Independents 67
- Innovation at the Periphery: The Cracker Jacker, Rickenbacker 68
- The Jordan and Advertising the Dream 69
- 4 From Out of the Mud to On the Open Road 72
- Which Came First: Good Roads or the Automobile? 72
- The Good Roads Movement 73
- A Transcontinental Link: The Lincoln Highway 75
- Federal Legislation and the Gas Tax 76
- Two Lane Black Top, or Concrete If There Is Money 76
- Auto Camping and "Gypsying" Across America 79
- Fill 'er Up 80
- Road Food 83
- Divided Highways, Parkways, and Expressways 83
- 5 Religion, Courtship, Sex, and Women Drivers 87
- An Answer to Prayer or Something to Pray About? 87
- Sex in the Back Seat 91
- Those Women Drivers! 93
- Cars as Homes 96
- 6 The Interwar Years: The Great Depression, Aerodynamics, and Cars of the Olympian Age 101
- Olympian Automobiles of the 1930s 102
- Streamlining and the Chrysler "Airflop" 108
- Sitdown, the Coming of the United Auto Workers, and the Battle of the Overpass 112
- The Poetic Response to the Automobile 114
- Singing the Blues about Automobiles and Life 115
- Filming on the Race Track and Soundstage 118
- 7 World War II and the Reconversion Economy: No Time for Sergeants or Aspiring Automobile Manufacturers 119
- "Little Bo Peep Has Lost Her Jeep. . ." 121
- Wartime Labor: Sacrifices and Selfishness 124
- Gas Rationing 124
- The Black Market: "Chiseled Gas" 127
- The Reconversion Economy and a Man's Dream 130
- 8 The Golden Age of the Automobile: The 1950s in America 133
- The Automobile and Civil Rights 135
- Hot Rod 138
- Sports Cars on American Tracks, and The Red Car 140
- Some Critics Surface: Safety and the Environment 143
- Dealers, Good and Bad 146
- The UAW, the Big Three, and Pattern Bargaining 149
- The Cars of the Golden Era 150
- The 1958 Recession and European Competition 153
- The Volkswagen Bug 154
- Cars and Rock and Roll 155
- Film: The Rebels 158
- A Night at the Drive-In 160
- On the Road 161
- The Coming of the Interstates 162
- Summing Up the Glorious 1950s 163
- 9 The Go-Go Years, 1959-1973 164
- The Microbus, Cars, and the Hippies 164
- The Cadillac and the Establishment 167
- An Age of Ambivalence 169
- Harry Crews and the "White Trash" in His Novel Car 170
- Ralph Nader and Unsafe at Any Speed 171
- Government Regulation: Safety and the Environment 173
- From a Brief Affair with Economy Vehicles to the Emergence of the Muscle Car 175
- California Dreaming 178
- Oil Shock I 178
- Japanese Automobiles Come in a Big Way to America 180
- James Bond, Steve McQueen, and the Action Thriller 181
- Mobile Lovemaking 184
- Summing Up the Sixties 184
- 10 The Automobile World Upside Down, 1980s to the Present 185
- Rivethead and the Quality Cat 186
- The Automobile and Contemporary Art 189
- Lessons Not Learned 189
- Trucks, Sport Utility Vehicles, and Crossovers 190
- The Car Hobby: Car Crazy 191
- Cars and Crime: The Drive-By 194
- NASCAR Nation 194
- Saturn, Chrysler, and Germans in the New South 197
- New Technologies 199
- Automobiles, Women, Eros, and Film 201
- Poetry, Women, and Passion 202
- Where Does the Automobile in American Life Go from Here? 206.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-239) and index.
- ISBN:
- 9780786440139
- 0786440139
- OCLC:
- 298304623
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