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The car : the rise and fall of the machine that made the modern world / Bryan Appleyard.

Appleyard, Bryan, (author.).

Summary:
"The car that we know - petrol or diesel-driven and operated by a human - will soon be replaced by electric cars which, in turn, will become self-driving. The reign of the car, which began in the late nineteenth century, will have lasted at most 150 years. More than any other technology - more than television, mobile phones, more even than the internet - cars have transformed our culture. On the streets we notice people talking on their phones, but custom and habit have blinded us to the more astounding daily spectacle: the sound and smell of billions of tons of motorized metal, rubber and glass. Cars have created vast wealth as well as novel dreams of freedom and mobility. They have transformed our sense of distance and made the world infinitely more available to our eyes and our imaginations. They have inspired cinema, music and literature; they have, by their need for roads, bridges, filling stations, huge factories and global supply chains, re-engineered the world. Almost everything we now need, want, imagine or aspire to assumes the existence of cars in all their limitless power and their complex systems of meanings. Bryan Appleyard's brilliantly insightful book places the car where it belongs: as the central technology of our lives, cultures, politics and history. It is a narrative-led evocation of how this momentous invention has produced equally good and bad outcomes, both freed us and imprisoned us. It is intended to make us notice the car, to see its extravagance and its genius, in its dying years as the crucial machine of modernity"--Publisher's description.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9781639362301
  • ISBN: 1639362304
  • Physical Description: 305 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
  • Edition: First Pegasus Books cloth edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Pegasus Books, 2022.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-290)and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
Introduction: the last space of freedom -- Part one. Makers -- 1. The fire inside -- 2. Mechanically uncanny -- 3. The pyramids of the Third Reich -- 4. Desire -- 5. The East Wind prevails over the West Wind -- Part two. Breakers -- 6. The hither edge of free land -- 7. More than just cars -- 8. The displaced heart -- 9. Backlash -- 10. Electrified autonomy -- Epilogue.
Subject: Automobiles > History.
Automobiles > Social aspects.

Available copies

  • 11 of 11 copies available at SPARK Libraries.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 11 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Annie Halenbake Ross Library 381 App (Text) 00155631 ADULT Non-Fiction Available -
Indian Valley Public Library 629.222 Appleyard Transportation (Text) 39427103716296 Nonfiction Room: Adult Nonfiction Available -
Lower Macungie Library 629.222 APP (Text) 33400001564775 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Martin Library Adults 629.22 APP Science Technology (Text) 33454005897780 2nd Floor Available -
Mason-Dixon Public Library Adults 629.22 APP Nonfiction (Text) 34262000781878 Main Room Available -
New Oxford Library 629.222 APPLEYARD (Text)
Endowment: Dr. James Oyler Named Endowment, 2022
35740635878028 Nonfiction Available -
Palmerton Area Library 629.222 Ap5 (Text) 65000000060956 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Spring Township Library 629.222 APP (Text) 33249024586194 Non-fiction Available -
West Lawn-Wyomissing Hills Library 629.222 APP (Text) 33249025417712 Non-fiction Available -
Allentown Public Library 629.222 APPL (Text) 34455006968719 Adult Nonfiction 1st FL Available -


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