The Life of the Automobile: The Complete History of the Motor Car
*Starred Review* Little more than a four-wheel motorized bicycle when first invented in the 1880s, the automobile has come to shape our lives more than any other modern invention. It changed the way we fight wars and make love; enabled the flourishing of suburbia, malls, fast-food drive-ins, motels, and theme parks; and has become an extension of our personalities. Parissien’s exhaustive overview of the evolution of the automobile follows the classic story of this backbone of industrialization with its successes, rivalries, declines, and resurrections that continue to this day. Although Germany, France, Great Britain, and Japan took turns at moving the industry forward, it was Detroit and the Big Three automakers that dominated in the golden age of the 1950s and ’60s, when the vehicle briefly became an art form, with its polished chrome, fins, wings, and roaring, muscular engines. The real men behind names like Benz, Daimler, Rolls-Royce, Peugeot, Renault, Ford, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, and Olds are profiled. From the Ford Model T to the Chevrolet Volt, Parissien covers every detail, including the sketchy safety and environmental record and a nod to the future of green technology. --David Siegfried