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A History of the American Dream in Fifteen Cars
Simon & Schuster
May 2012
On Sale: May 1, 2012
416 pages ISBN: 1451640633 EAN: 9781451640632 Kindle: B005GG0LGG Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
A narrative like no other: a cultural history that explores
how cars have both propelled and reflected the American
experience— from the Model T to the Prius. From the assembly lines of Henry Ford to the open roads of
Route 66, from the lore of Jack Kerouac to the sex appeal of
the Hot Rod, America’s history is a vehicular history—an
idea brought brilliantly to life in this major work by
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Paul Ingrassia. Ingrassia offers a wondrous epic in fifteen automobiles,
including the Corvette, the Beetle, and the Chevy Corvair,
as well as the personalities and tales behind them: Robert
McNamara’s unlikely role in Lee Iacocca’s Mustang, John Z.
DeLorean’s Pontiac GTO , Henry Ford’s Model T, as well as
Honda’s Accord, the BMW 3 Series, and the Jeep, among others. Through these cars and these characters, Ingrassia shows how
the car has expressed the particularly American tension
between the lure of freedom and the obligations of utility.
He also takes us through the rise of American manufacturing,
the suburbanization of the country, the birth of the hippie
and the yuppie, the emancipation of women, and many more
fateful episodes and eras, including the car’s unintended
consequences: trial lawyers, energy crises, and urban
sprawl. Narrative history of the highest caliber, Engines of
Change is an entirely edifying new way to look at the
American story.
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