The Life of the Automobile
The Complete History of the Motor Car
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The Life of the Automobile is the first comprehensive world history of the car.
The automobile has arguably shaped the modern era more profoundly than any other human invention, and author Steven Parissien examines the impact, development, and significance of the automobile over its turbulent and colorful 130-year history. Readers learn the grand and turbulent history of the motor car, from its earliest appearance in the 1880s—as little more than a powered quadricycle—and the innovations of the early pioneer carmakers. The author examines the advances of the interwar era, the Golden Age of the 1950s, and the iconic years of the 1960s to the decades of doubt and uncertainty following the oil crisis of 1973, the global mergers of the 1990s, the bailouts of the early twenty-first century, and the emergence of the electric car.
This is not just a story of horsepower and performance but a tale of extraordinary people: of intuitive carmakers such as Karl Benz, Sir Henry Royce, Giovanni Agnelli (Fiat), André Citroën, and Louis Renault; of exceptionally gifted designers such as the eccentric, Ohio-born Chris Bangle (BMW); and of visionary industrialists such as Henry Ford, Ferdinand Porsche (the Volkswagen Beetle), and Gene Bordinat (the Ford Mustang), among numerous other game changers.
Above all, this comprehensive history demonstrates how the epic story of the car mirrors the history of the modern era, from the brave hopes and soaring ambitions of the early twentieth century to the cynicism and ecological concerns of a century later. Bringing to life the flamboyant entrepreneurs, shrewd businessmen, and gifted engineers that worked behind the scenes to bring us horsepower and performance, The Life of the Automobile is a globe-spanning account of the auto industry that is sure to rev the engines of entrepreneurs and gearheads alike.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This sweeping attempt to trace the development, dominance, and refiguring of the car offers some terrific glimpses at the vast and varied worldwide story of the automobile. Parisser, a versatile and enthusiastic English historian, offers entertaining vignettes of late 19th-century car pioneers, from German engineer Karl Benz and his first-ever long car trip from Mannheim to Pforzsheim and car maker Louis Renault. Parisser is at his best with encapsulated corporate histories of such automakers as Ford and Nissan. Along the way he offers devastating portraits of "out of touch" executives who oversaw the decline and fall of Detroit's Big Three car makers in the decades after the energy crises of the 1970s, when "cheap oil and motoring became a thing of the past." He highlights Roger Smith, the unlamented GM chairman from 1981 to 1990, whose tenure was marked by "business disasters compounded by appalling public relations blunders," as well as maverick John DeLorean, whose attempt to make luxury vehicles sank "from tragedy, to farce, to movie stardom" thanks to his eponymous vehicle's role in the Back to the Future movie franchise. Parisser is an enthusiastic writer, but his story gets mired with industrial insider references and descriptions of company mergers.
Customer Reviews
The Life of the Automobile
A pleasure to read for a car buff. The scope covers the entire industry from inception to the present time. The book is somewhat "European-centric." Which provided a break from the usual Ford and Sloan routine. there are also a few odd references to models which area to in the wrong continent and/subsidiaries. However the book is a data dump of auto facts and information. The book was also very insightful on the management of the various manufacturers and how they played the dating game of mixing and matching brands through mergers, consolidations and finally breakups. Many of the car makers have shed excess capacity and have emerged from financial problems. These financial factors along with technical challenge of creating new technology to meet both demand and fuel limitations make this a very interesting time, and this is where the book has left off, what is the next step of the auto industry?