The ultimate guide to liberating ourselves from our addiction to cars.

In his cultural analysis of the motor car in Germany, Wolfgang Sachs starts from the assumption that the automobile is more than a means of transportation and that its history cannot be understood merely as a triumphant march of technological innovation. Instead, Sachs examines the history of the automobile from the late 1880s until today for evidence on the nature of dreams and desires embedded in modern culture. Written in a lively style and illustrated by a wealth of cartoons, advertisements, newspaper stories, and propaganda, this book explores the nature of Germany's love affair with the automobile. A "history of our desires" for speed, wealth, violence, glamour, progress, and power—as refracted through images of the automobile—it is at once fascinating and provocative. Sachs recounts the development of the automobile industry and the impact on German society of the marketing and promotion of the motor car. As cars became more affordable and more common after World War II, advertisers fanned the competition for status, refining their techniques as ownership became ever more widespread. Sachs concludes by demonstrating that the triumphal procession of private motorization has in fact become an intrusion. The grand dreams once attached to the automobile have aged. Sachs appeals for the cultivation of new dreams born of the futility of the old ones, dreams of "a society liberated from progress," in which location, distance, and speed are reconceived in more appropriately humane dimensions.

A Robb Report Best Coffee Table Book to Gift in 2020 A Sports Car News and InsideHook Best Coffee Table Book for Car Lovers Celebrate That Special Bond Between Men and Cars, and the Stories That Connect Them Discover actor and director Ed Burns talking about his 1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, a model he’d been dreaming about since his days pumping gas. NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, whose favorite cars are trucks—he loves the wow factor of an International CV Series 6.6. Or Jay Leno on his 1955 Buick Roadmaster, big enough for him to sleep in while trying to make it as a comic. Filled with stunning photographs of the whole cars and of the exquisite details that make car lovers’ hearts beat just a little faster, as well as more than 80 personal stories, it’s a joy for every reader who knows that a car is never just a car.

Welcome to Cuba's automotive time capsule, filled with classic cars. The story of how Cuba came to be trapped in automotive time is a fascinating one. For decades, the island country had enjoyed healthy tourism trade and American outpost status, and by the 1950s it had the highest per capita automotive purchasing of any Latin American country - its middle class ensured an interesting variety of vehicles plying the roads. But when Cuba fell to communist rebels in 1959, so ended the inflow of new cars. Since then, trade embargo forced Cuba's car enthusiasts to develop a unique and insular culture, one marked by great creativity, such as: Keeping a car alive with no opportunity to acquire replacement parts; customizing a car with no access to aftermarket parts; drag racing with no drag strip. In many ways, Cuba is an automotive time warp, where the newest car is a 1959 Chevy or perhaps one of the Soviet Ladas. Cuba's Car Culture offers an inside look at a unique car culture, populated with cars that have been cut off from the world so long that they've morphed into something else in the spirit of automotive survival. Authors Tom Cotter and Bill Warner (founder of the Amelia Island Concours) take readers of Cuba's Car Culture on a whirlwind tour of all things automotive, beginning with Cuba's pre-Castro car and racing history and bringing us up to today's lost collector cars, street racing, and the challenges of keeping decades-old cars on the road. The book is illustrated throughout with rare historical photos as well as contemporary photos of Cuba's current car scene. For anyone who enjoys classic cars, from old Chevy Bel-Airs to Studebakers to Ford Fairlanes, a cruise around Cuba will make you feel like a kid in a candy store.

Novel fashion photographer Craig McDean -- he of the blazing Jil Sander and Calvin Klein campaigns -- has a hankering for hot wheels and muscle cars, the kind built in back yards and driveways across America. He also loves to see them drag race, in quasi-formal circuits known as bracket racing.

A little girl pitches in to help her tía save up for a big old car — and take the whole family to the beach — in a story told with warmth and sweetness. Tía Isa wants a car. A shiny green car the same color as the ocean, with wings like a swooping bird. A car to take the whole family to the beach. But saving is hard when everything goes into two piles — one for here and one for Helping Money, so that family members who live far away might join them someday. While Tía Isa saves, her niece does odd jobs for neighbors so she can add her earnings to the stack. But even with her help, will they ever have enough? Meg Medina’s simple, genuine story about keeping in mind those who are far away is written in lovely, lyrical prose and brought to life through Claudio Muñoz’s charming characters.

Bo the Bear loves to build! He's found a garage and race track, and now he's ready to build his own race car.