Subtitled: 100 Years of Bibendum. This graphic volume celebrates the life and work of one of the world's most universally recognized and brilliant marketing figures. Throughout this century Bibendum's images have conveyed the message of a firm that has successfully branched out beyond the tire business into all sectors of the travel industry, from maps and travel guides to the creation of road signs and the numbering of highways, as seen here in lavishly illustrated sketches, artwork and photographs from the Michelin Tyre Company's archives. Only available through Classic Motorbooks. Hdbd., 9 3/4" x 12 1/2", 144 pgs., 100+ b&w ill., 100+ color.

This is the remarkable story of how two brothers - Edouard and Andre Michelin - turned a sleepy, family tyre firm in the heart of rural France into one of the most innovative and successful industrial empires in the world. Edouard, a landscape painter at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, displayed an engineering genius for tyre-making and product innovation, whilst Andre, trained as an engineer, displayed a creative genius for advertising and marketing. Together they kick-started the world motor industry and created a tourist industry around the motor car and their now legendary "Michelin Guides". The Michelin history, as described here by Herbert Lottman, reveals insights into the development of this remarkable business.

A history of Bibendum, born in France in 1898, who has left his mark on the early years of advertising and matured from an aggressive stance to the friendlier look for today as a reassuring guide for motorists.

A selection of 250 posters from all over the world, designed between 1898 and today.

Harp uses the familiar figure of Bibendum and the promotional campaigns designed around him to analyze the cultural assumptions of "belle-epoque" France, including representations of gender, race and class. He also considers Michelin's efforts to promote automobile tourism in France and Europe through its famous "Red Guide" (first introduced in 1900), noting that, in the aftermath of World War I, the company sold tour guides to the battlefields of the Western Front and favourably positioned France's participation in the war as purely defensive and unavoidable. Throughout this period, the company successfully identified the name of Michelin with many aspects of French society, from cuisine and local culture to nationalism and colonialism.