Title
Highways to heaven : the auto biography of America / Christopher Finch.
Edition
1st ed.
ISBN
0060165510
9780060165512
Imprint
New York, NY : HarperCollins Publishers, c1992.
Language
English
Description
416 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Call Number
HE5623 .F56 1992
Dewey Decimal Classification
303.48/32
Summary
From the early days of the horseless carriage to tomorrow's dream cars, the history of the automobile has been inextricably intertwined with the culture of twentieth-century America. The automobile altered everything, from the way crimes were committed to the way courtships were conducted, and the car itself came to embody power and independence, becoming the ultimate erotic accessory--a sexual object of sometimes ambiguous gender. In Highways to Heaven, Christopher Finch chronicles the dramatic rise of the automobile and describes how it transformed the American landscape and the American psyche. He evokes the ambitious men who created a giant industry and shows how that industry, and our passion for the automobile, shaped the world we live in today--the world of freeways and exurbs, of shopping malls and fast-food franchises--even determining the character of whole cities like Los Angeles.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Available Note
Also issued online.
Pt. 1. Highways to heaven
Red cards and redoubtable buggies
Self-starters
Arterial auguries
American algorithms
Automoville I
From Duesenbergs to the dust bowl
Pt. 2. Boomtime
Pike dreams
Feats of clay
Freeways and franchisers
Automoville II
Minis and muscle cars
Pt. 3. Crisis
Invasions of privacy
Introversions
Retrenchment
Automoville III
Admonitions and alternatives
Multinational matters.
