Automobility and the Anthropocene : the car as post-human / Gordon M. Sayre.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sayre, Gordon M. (Gordon Mitchell), 1964- author.

Series:

Cambridge elements. Elements in environmental humanities, 2632-3125.

Cambridge elements. Elements in environmental humanities, 2632-3125

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Automobiles--History.

Automobiles.

Automobile industry and trade--History.

Automobile industry and trade.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (70 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

The automobile has transformed Earth's habitats and humans' habits since the 1890s, when it, this Element argues, began the Anthropocene. Climate change now motivates efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, of which cars and trucks account for at least 10 percent. Shifting to electric vehicles is not enough; one needs to better understand the power cars hold over humans. Environmental humanities scholars examine human/machine hybrids but have ignored the most obvious example. Humans driving cars are social agents constituting a civil society of automobility in roadscape environments. This Element traces the evolution of cars from horsecars, carriages, and bicycles, and the influence of Henry Ford and Alfred P. Sloan on labor standards and consumer behaviors. As the car industry pushes high-tech autonomous or self-driving vehicles, it relies on futuristic fantasies and false promises. The ills of automobility cannot be solved with new products that only intensify human dependence upon cars.

Contents:

Cover

Title page

Imprints page

Automobility and the Anthropocene: The Car as Post-Human

Contents

Introduction

1 Cars in Twentieth-Century Social Theory and Twenty-First-Century Post-Humanism

1.1 Antonio Gramsci on Fordism, Theodor Adorno on Sloanism

1.2 Post-Humanist Theory behind the Wheel: Donna Haraway, Judith Butler

1.3 "Cars Have Their Own Faces": Roadscape as Post-Human Environment

2 Cars and the Anthropocene

2.1 "The Earth Is Inhabited by Strange Creatures Called Cars . . . "

2.2 The Horseless Carriage Age: Anthropocene as the Epoch of Cars

3 Cars, Futurism, and Nostalgia

3.1 Futurama and Autonorama

3.2 Customizers as Car Critics: Nostalgia and Irony at Gambler 500

4 Carbolization

4.1 Air Pollution and Regulation in Los Angeles, 1973

4.2 Car Nationalism, Neo-Fordism, and the Future of the Car-Driver

References

Acknowledgments.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 30 May 2025).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-009-52670-7

1-009-52675-8

1-009-52671-5

OCLC:

1574118394