Autophobia: Love and Hate in the Automotive Age (Hardcover)

by Brian Ladd (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Increases in oil prices have driven gasoline costs into the psyche of every American. Ladd documents a century of expanding U.S. reliance on vehicles powered by oil, most of which has to be imported. He frames his analysis in familiar concepts: the automotive industry as employer, urban migration from cities by families relying on automobiles for transportation, traffic/congestion/roadways, and damage to the environment from burning fossil fuels. Several of these themes have been explored recently, e.g., in Tom Vanderbilt''s Traffic, Paul Roberts''s The End of Oil, Tim Falconer''s Drive, and James Howard Kunstler''s The Long Emergency. Ladd sets his work apart by showing how the car is completely woven into the fabric of our cultural and economic history. As such, he writes, we have accepted the dark side of the automobile-pollution, congestion, high energy costs, and accidental loss of life-in exchange for personal mobility. His pessimistic forecast sees increases in automobile use even as energy prices continue to climb."-Library Journal (Library Journal 20081116)

"The work of Autophobia is precisely about looking again at what has been said, by whom and for what reason, and why none of the voluminous critiques of the car-by any number of estimable figures-seem to have much mattered. [Ladd] does this with equanimity and scholarly aplomb (particularly on the European response to motorization), and for a slender volume, this book has a lot under the hood."-Tom Vanderbilt, New York Times Book Review (Tom Vanderbilt New York Times Book Review )

"For most of its history, as Brian Ladd points out in this fascinating account, critiquing the automobile has been a useless exercise-it rolled on over all opposition. But this year-when Americans are suddenly parking their gas guzzlers and lining up for the bus-is the right year to read this book, and to try and figure out what our century-long affair with the car says about us and about our future."-Bill McKibben (Bill McKibben )

Product Description
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. Add the astonishing price in human lives that we pay for our automobility - some thirty million people were killed in car accidents during the twentieth century - plus the countless number of hours we waste in gridlock commuting to work, running errands, picking up our kids, and searching for parking, and one can't help but ask: Haven't 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-hate relationship we have 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 world's cities, and spanning settings as varied as belle epoque Paris, Nazi Germany, postwar London, Los Angeles, New York, and Shanghai, Ladd explores this love-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 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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 236 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (November 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226467414
• ISBN-13: 978-0226467412
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #275,650 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What you never knew about Toad's Wild RIde, December 18, 2008

By	Harriet Nethery "Reads everything" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

If you've read Brian Ladd's Ghosts of Berlin, you know he is a historian of the highest caliber and a splendid writer. In Autophobia, Ladd doesn't disappoint. This original and slightly contrarian account of our century-long love-hate relationship with the automobile covers a tremendous amount of historical ground in an economical, entertaining read. Anchored by anecdotes ranging from the hilarious to the heartbreaking (including a priceless account of road-hog Toad and his fancy auto machine), Ladd offers insight into the current turn against the auto and into how modern life has become increasingly dependent and designed around cars, whether we drive them or not. An excellent book for our difficult times.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars couldn't finish it, March 1, 2009

By	C. P. Anderson (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book isn't bad, just rather boring. I really wanted to like it, and in fact really enjoyed the first chapter or two, which covered the early history of the automobile. I think we all forget how controversial cars were and how many people opposed them - quite vigorously, in fact. Ladd does a good job of recycling old primary material that seems quite quaint and entertaining in this regard.

Unfortunately, that's about the only color in this book. The later chapters, which cover more recent events, are quite dull and very predictable. I was thinking this book would be something along the lines of Malcolm McDowell. You know, those books that cover some interesting aspect of society, throw in plenty of illustrative stories, are very well written, and really make you think. That's not this one unfortunately.

At the same time, I did learn a few things, the book does a good job of covering a lot of material, and some of it was entertaining. So, I really can't give it 1 star, like the other reviewers. You're probably better served, though, by some of the other books in this vein - Drive, Traffic, and so on.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, January 31, 2009

By	charles tunis - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

nothing new here...written in a very pedestrian style...there are many better books available on this topic...no new research offered...avoid this book!