Asphalt Nation is a major work of urban studies that examines how the automobile has ravaged America’s cities and landscape, and how we can fight back. The automobile was once seen as a boon to American life, eradicating the pollution caused by horses and granting citizens new levels of personal freedom and mobility. But it was not long before the servant became the master—public spaces were designed to accommodate the automobile at the expense of the pedestrian, mass transportation was neglected, and the poor, unable to afford cars, saw their access to jobs and amenities worsen. Now even drivers themselves suffer, as cars choke the highways and pollution and congestion have replaced the fresh air of the open road. Today our world revolves around the car—as a nation, we spend eight billion hours a year stuck in traffic. In Asphalt Nation, Jane Holtz Kay effectively calls for a revolution to reverse our automobile-dependency. Citing successful efforts in places from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, Kay shows us that radical change is not impossible by any means. She demonstrates that there are economic, political, architectural, and personal solutions that can steer us out of the mess. Asphalt Nation is essential reading for everyone interested in the history of our relationship with the car, and in the prospect of returning to a world of human mobility.

Now revised and updated, this book tells the story of how the automobile transformed American life and how automotive design and technology have changed over time. It details cars' inception as a mechanical curiosity and later a plaything for the wealthy; racing and the promotion of the industry; Henry Ford and the advent of mass production; market competition during the 1920s; the development of roads and accompanying highway culture; the effects of the Great Depression and World War II; the automotive Golden Age of the 1950s; oil crises and the turbulent 1970s; the decline and then resurgence of the Big Three; and how American car culture has been represented in film, music and literature. Updated notes and a select bibliography serve as valuable resources to those interested in automotive history.

Between 1895 and the late 1920's American civilization was transformed by the automobile and the automobile industry. In American Adopts the Automobile, 1895-1910,James J. Flink writes about the formation of an American automobile culture during the period from the introduction of the motor vehicle into the United States in 1895 to the opening of the Ford Motor Company's Highland Park plant on January 1, 1910. He concludes that Americans by 1910 were committed to automobility and that, with the development of a mass market for motorcars, the automobile industry in America had reached a critical turning point. From then on, the automobile and the automobile industry "called the tune and set the tempo of modern American life." In contrast to earlier historians of the automobile, Professor Flink avoids narrow concentration on the automobile industry and its product. He focuses instead on the automobile as a factor influencing and influenced by American civilization. The molding of a favorable public opinion of the automobile by the press, the growth of automobile clubs, the evolution of legislation intended to regulate the motor vehicle, the development of roads and services for the motorist, and regional, class, and occupational differences in automotive innovativeness—these are some of the topics that are dealt with adequately for the first time in this authoritative volume. Forty-six full-page illustrations augment the text. Familiar topics are also viewed from a fresh perspective. Having made an exhaustive study of the automobile trade journals and popular periodicals of the period, Professor Flink was able to relate the developments in automotive technology and in the automobile industry to the sociocultural milieu within which these developments took place. He reaches some novel conclusions. He demonstrates, for example, that from the first the organization of the automobile industry and the industry's technological accomplishments lagged behind the public's expectations that a reliable, cheap car for the masses would soon appear and inaugurate a utopian horseless age. Well before Henry Ford came out with his legendary Model T, popular opinion of the automobile was overwhelmingly favorable, and many people thought that automobility was a panacea for society's ills. America Adopts the Automobile, 1895-1910,is the first comprehensive, scholarly account of the origins of the American automobile revolution. It adds a new dimension to our understanding of twentieth century American civilization.

Presents essays on all phases of the American automobile industry and the effect of its product on individual lives and the culture of the society.

At its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, automobile manufacturing was the largest, most profitable industry in the United States and residents of industry hubs like Detroit and Flint, Michigan had some of the highest incomes in the country. Over the last half-century, the industry has declined, and American automakers now struggle to stay profitable. How did the most prosperous industry in the richest country in the world crash and burn? In Wrecked, sociologists Joshua Murray and Michael Schwartz offer an unprecedented historical-sociological analysis of the downfall of the auto industry. Through an in-depth examination of labor relations and the production processes of automakers in the U.S. and Japan both before and after World War II, they demonstrate that the decline of the American manufacturers was the unintended consequence of their attempts to weaken the bargaining power of their unions. Today Japanese and many European automakers produce higher quality cars at lower cost than their American counterparts thanks to a flexible form of production characterized by long-term sole suppliers, assembly and supply plants located near each other, and just-in-time delivery of raw materials. While this style of production was, in fact, pioneered in the U.S. prior to World War II, in the years after the war, American automakers deliberately dismantled this system. As Murray and Schwartz show, flexible production accelerated innovation but also facilitated workers’ efforts to unionize plants and carry out work stoppages. To reduce the efficacy of strikes and combat the labor militancy that flourished between the Depression and the postwar period, the industry dispersed production across the nation, began maintaining large stockpiles of inventory, and eliminated single sourcing. While this restructuring of production did ultimately reduce workers’ leverage, it also decreased production efficiency and innovation. The U.S. auto industry has struggled ever since to compete with foreign automakers, and formerly thriving motor cities have suffered the consequences of mass deindustrialization. Murray and Schwartz argue that new business models that reinstate flexible production and prioritize innovation rather than cheap labor could stem the outsourcing of jobs and help revive the auto industry. By clarifying the historical relationships between production processes, organized labor, and industrial innovation, Wrecked provides new insights into the inner workings and decline of the U.S. auto industry.

Both the most complete survey available of 20th-century American cars & a glorious, nostalgic photographic portrait of the icons of roadside America.

Capturing the excitement of a nation as it became a driving force -- in more ways than one -- Driving Around America is the story of how America's romantic, restless spirit found its counterpart in the automobile. With Henry Ford's assembly lines lowering the price of cars, ordinary people began to travel where and when they pleased with a freedom never before known -- and the nation would never be the same. People moved farther from their work, creating suburbs; the demand for gasoline increased, spurring the growth of the petroleum industry; and individual members of families moved far from each other, changing the social fabric of the nation. From the auto's early beginnings to the commonplace use of cars in all aspects of life today, Driving Around America is a fascinating portrait of how America transformed as its citizens were on the move more and more.