Title: Atlantic automobilism : emergence and persistence of the car, 1895-1940 /
Authors: Mom, Gijs, 1949-
Year: 2015
Subjects: Automobiles North America History; Automobile travel North America History; Automobiles Social aspects North America.
Abstract: Our continued use of the combustion engine car in the 21st century, despite many rational arguments against it, makes it more and more difficult to imagine that transport has a sustainable future. Offering a sweeping transatlantic perspective, this book explains the current obsession with automobiles by delving deep into the motives of early car users. It provides a synthesis of our knowledge about the emergence and persistence of the car, using a broad range of material including novels, poems, films, and songs to unearth the desires that shaped our present "car society." Combining social, psychological, and structural explanations, the author concludes that the ability of cars to convey transcendental experience, especially for men, explains our attachment to the vehicle.--
Contents: Introduction : explaining the car : prolegomena for a history of North-Atlantic automobilism -- pt. I. Emergence (1895-1918) -- 1. Racing, touring, tinkering : constructing the adventure machine (1895-1914/1917) -- First phase : emergence and roots of the petrol car (until 1902) -- Second phase : resistance against elite touring in heavy family cars (1902-1908) -- A first analysis of automotive adventure : the masculine "conquest of nature" -- Third phase : the "small capitalist" and the "average man" (1908 until the War) -- 2. How it feels to be run over : the grammar of early automobile adventure -- Driving and writing : analyzing affinities of touristic and artistic experiences -- Autopoetics : mainstream authors -- the "real unreality of things" : critical voices from the United Kingdom -- Colonialism by car : gendered travel writing -- Male violence and aggression : a French-Belgian group of writer-motorists -- Subliterary novels : the Williamsons and youth novels -- Flight forward : the Avant-Garde, silent movies, and the celebration of automotive violence -- Tarkington, Cather, and Dreiser : autopoetics before America's entry into the War -- 3. Driving on aggression : the First World War and the systems approach to the car -- Preparing for war : clubs, the military and aggression -- Preparing for war : organizing mobility -- Mobilization, immobility, remobilization : aggression, violence, and atrocities -- War trophies : the truck, logistics, and maintenance -- War trophies : Thanatourism and other adventures --