Cars are the scourge of civilization, responsible for everything from
suburban sprawl and urban decay to environmental devastation and rampant
climate change, not to mention our slavish dependence on foreign oil
from dubious sources abroad. Add the astonishing price in human lives
that we pay for our automobility, some 30 million people were killed in
car accidents during the 20th century plus the countless number of hours
we waste in gridlock traffic commuting to work, running errands, picking
up our kids, and searching for parking, and one can't help but ask:
Havent we had enough already? After a century behind the wheel, could we
be reaching the end of the automotive age?
From the Model T to the SUV, Autophobia reveals that our vexed
relationship with the automobile is nothing new. In fact, debates over
whether cars are forces of good or evil in our world have raged for over
a century now, ever since the automobile was invented. According to
Brian Ladd, this love and hate relationship we share with our cars is
the defining quality of the automotive age. And everyone has an opinion
about them, from the industry shills, oil barons, and radical
libertarians who offer cars blithe paeans and deny their ill effects, to
the technophobes, treehuggers, and killjoys who curse cars, ignoring the
very real freedoms and benefits they provide us. Focusing in particular
on our worlds cities, and spanning settings as varied as belle epoque
Paris, Nazi Germany, postwar London, Los Angeles, New York, and the
smoggy Shanghai of today, Ladd explores this love and hate relationship
throughout, acknowledging adherents and detractors of the automobile
alike.
Eisenhower, Hitler, Jan and Dean, J. G. Ballard, Ralph Nader, OPEC, and,
of course, cars, all come into play in this wide-ranging but remarkably
wry and pithy book. A dazzling display of erudition, Autophobia is
cultural commentary at its most compelling, history at its most
searching and a surprising page-turner.
