The Automobile and American Culture

The Automobile and American Culture PDF Author: David Lanier Lewis
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472080441
Category : Automobiles
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Presents essays on all phases of the American automobile industry and the effect of its product on individual lives and the culture of the society.

The Automobile and American Culture

The Automobile and American Culture PDF Author: David Lanier Lewis
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472080441
Category : Automobiles
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Presents essays on all phases of the American automobile industry and the effect of its product on individual lives and the culture of the society.

Once Upon a Car

Once Upon a Car PDF Author: Bill Vlasic
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 006204222X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
Once Upon a Car is the brilliantly reported inside-the-boardrooms-and-factories story of Detroit’s fight for survival, going beyond the headlines to chronicle how the country’s Big Three auto companies—General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler—teetered on the brink of collapse during the 2008 financial crisis. In a tale that reads like a corporate thriller, Bill Vlasic, who has covered the auto industry for more than fifteen years, first for the Detroit News and now for the New York Times, takes readers into the executive offices, assembly plants, and union halls to introduce a cast of memorable characters, many of whom are speaking out for the first time, including the executives who struggled to save their companies but in the end had to seek a controversial, last-gasp rescue from the U.S. government. Vlasic goes behind the scenes to portray the men at the top during Detroit’s last stand. Rick Wagoner, the CEO of General Motors, tried to turn around a dying company, only to be forced to resign as a condition of the government bailout. Bill Ford, great-grandson of the legendary Henry Ford, had the will to keep Ford alive but needed the guts to hire an unknown outsider, Alan Mulally, to transform the company before it crashed. At Chrysler, leadership was constantly changing as new owners tried in vain to fix the smallest of the beleaguered Big Three. And through it all, the president of the United Auto Workers union, Ron Gettelfinger, fought to save the jobs of the men and women who build American-made cars and trucks. This tale of an iconic industry in crisis is more than a big business drama and provides a rich, unvarnished portrait of how Detroit’s decline affected tens of thousands of workers and dozens of communities nationwide. The story moves from the gleaming corporate skyscrapers and massive auto plants to the halls of the U.S. Congress and into the Oval Office, where President Obama and his aides wrestled with how to keep General Motors and Chrysler from going out of business. Vlasic shows why the bailout worked, and how Detroit can succeed under new leadership and build automobiles equal to any in the world. Once Upon a Car tells a uniquely American tale of success, failure, and redemption. It is an important and illuminating chapter in an astonishing story that is still unfolding. And no one is more qualified to write it than Bill Vlasic.

A Financial History of the American Automobile Industry

A Financial History of the American Automobile Industry PDF Author: Lawrence Howard Seltzer
Publisher: A. M. Kelley
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description


The Life of the Automobile

The Life of the Automobile PDF Author: Steven Parissien
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1466836237
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
The Life of the Automobile is the first comprehensive world history of the car. The automobile has arguably shaped the modern era more profoundly than any other human invention, and author Steven Parissien examines the impact, development, and significance of the automobile over its turbulent and colorful 130-year history. Readers learn the grand and turbulent history of the motor car, from its earliest appearance in the 1880s—as little more than a powered quadricycle—and the innovations of the early pioneer carmakers. The author examines the advances of the interwar era, the Golden Age of the 1950s, and the iconic years of the 1960s to the decades of doubt and uncertainty following the oil crisis of 1973, the global mergers of the 1990s, the bailouts of the early twenty-first century, and the emergence of the electric car. This is not just a story of horsepower and performance but a tale of extraordinary people: of intuitive carmakers such as Karl Benz, Sir Henry Royce, Giovanni Agnelli (Fiat), André Citroën, and Louis Renault; of exceptionally gifted designers such as the eccentric, Ohio-born Chris Bangle (BMW); and of visionary industrialists such as Henry Ford, Ferdinand Porsche (the Volkswagen Beetle), and Gene Bordinat (the Ford Mustang), among numerous other game changers. Above all, this comprehensive history demonstrates how the epic story of the car mirrors the history of the modern era, from the brave hopes and soaring ambitions of the early twentieth century to the cynicism and ecological concerns of a century later. Bringing to life the flamboyant entrepreneurs, shrewd businessmen, and gifted engineers that worked behind the scenes to bring us horsepower and performance, The Life of the Automobile is a globe-spanning account of the auto industry that is sure to rev the engines of entrepreneurs and gearheads alike.

Engines of Change

Engines of Change PDF Author: Paul Ingrassia
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 145164065X
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
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.

The Automobile Industry

The Automobile Industry PDF Author: William Joseph Showalter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Automobile industry and trade
Languages : en
Pages : 82

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Book Description


Cars

Cars PDF Author: Karel Williams
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 9781571818515
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Car manufacturing involves the movement of large numbers of heavy, awkward objects incorporating some 20,000 parts, through a large number of short cycles. As to be expected the constant flow of the processes involved is disrupted by both the inherent complexities of production and those of market restrictions. This study, a unique blend of analysis, history and case studies, not only characterizes the essence of car manufacturing but also explains the links between production, market conditions and financial results and constraints. At the same time, it challenges fashionable views on the car industry and rejects the current preference for facile dichotomies (e.g. mass production vs. lean production; Japan vs. America; freedom vs. regulation). However, it also shows that the failure of BMC, the largest failure in the industry to date, cannot be attributed to its incomplete adoption of the best system. Ford and Toyota were exceptionally successful in their production organization but their solutions had more in common than is generally acknowledged, and those solutions also required exceptional market conditions for their successful implementation.

The Automobile

The Automobile PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Automobile industry and trade
Languages : en
Pages : 822

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Story of the Automobile

Story of the Automobile PDF Author: H.L. Barber
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description


The Automobile in American History and Culture

The Automobile in American History and Culture PDF Author: Michael L. Berger
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313016062
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
This comprehensive reference guide reviews the literature concerning the impact of the automobile on American social, economic, and political history. Covering the complete history of the automobile to date, twelve chapters of bibliographic essays describe the important works in a series of related topics and provide broad thematic contexts. This work includes general histories of the automobile, the industry it spawned and labor-management relations, as well as biographies of famous automotive personalities. Focusing on books concerned with various social aspects, chapters discuss such issues as the car's influence on family life, youth, women, the elderly, minorities, literature, and leisure and recreation. Berger has also included works that investigate the government's role in aiding and regulating the automobile, with sections on roads and highways, safety, and pollution. The guide concludes with an overview of reference works and periodicals in the field and a description of selected research collections. The Automobile in American History and Culture provides a resource with which to examine the entire field and its structure. Popular culture scholars and enthusiasts involved in automotive research will appreciate the extensive scope of this reference. Cross-referenced throughout, it will serve as a valuable research tool.