A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Dave Holls (Author) "Andrew F. Johnson spent the better part of his life-half a century..." (more)
Key Phrases: styling bridges, inner sheetmetal, automotive style, New York, Harley Earl, General Motors (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

This is quite simply the best book ever written on American automotive design....

From The New Yorker

Lamm and Holls...have put just about all that one could ask for on this huge subject into a large, solidly structured and masterfully written book.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 306 pages
• Publisher: Lamm-Morada Pub Co; 2nd edition (December 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0932128076
• ISBN-13: 978-0932128072
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #479,829 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A magnificent book, clearly a classic., October 22, 1999

By A Customer

Lamm and Holls have hit a home run! This book will provide any car lover with many hours of informative and pleasurable reading.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Impressionistic, Absorbing Photographs!, November 7, 2002

By	M. D. MCGINLEY "Chief Highliner" (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is understood that to better appreciate anything in our modern life we need to go back to its origins. Authors Lamm and Holls did that quite adeptly with a wonderfully organized automotive chronology...with the pages beautifully arranged. Most striking is the contrast and resolution of the black and white photographs, which, as the professional photographer already knows, are often preferred over color for those very reasons. Beginning with a light treatise on shipbuilding as a starting point, our authors lead us on a journey through coachbuilding, the "Nuts and Bolts of Early Automotive Fashion" (Chapter 2) and styling designs of the Big Three Automakers: Chrysler, Ford and General Motors.

This book is not, however, simply an encyclopedia or recalling of events. It analyzes the overall effect that the lives of the designers themselves, and their families, had on our own modern culture. These insights are precisely what sets this book apart from a simple narrative with pictures. Consequently, we can then appreciate how much work is actually instilled into what we drive today. This book basically teaches us that automotive design is at the very foundation of our modern heritage.

Covering 306 pages over fourteen chapters, highly illustrated and perfectly indexed, "A Century of Automotive Style" is practically an education by itself, or more specifically, that of the social and economic impacts of automobile styling on our American culture. Knowledgeable, well-written and extremely detailed, this excellent work is clearly indicative of our author's background at GM's advanced design facility and formal schooling in industrial design. ... My top recommendation for all readers.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why any serious automotive library should include this book., June 12, 1998

By	David B. Reeves ( [e-mail] ) (Syracuse, New York) - See all my reviews

What Mike Lamm and Dave Holls have done is a truly monumental task . . . to take the history of automotive styling over the last 100 years and compile it into a readable resource that you can (and will) pick up and put down as you move from era to era, manufacturer to manufacturer, and personality to personality. The numerous "sidebars" offer much-needed insights into the people, places and processes that have produced the "look" of what is argueably the most important invention of the century - the car. This is not a book for an evening's diversion, or a straight-through read. It is best digested in small ( say, one-hour ) doses, over a long period of time. The serious reader will no doubt be led by these doses to other books in his library for more in-depth research, and then tomorrow night return for another dose. There will be only one disappointment when you are finished . . and that is the fact that you ARE finished. So put on the tea kettle, mount the La-Z-Boy, and spend some sustained "quality time" with the great cars and their designers. I thought I had a pretty thorough body of knowledge concerning automotive styling, but I learned a lot . . . you will, too. If you consider yourself a serious student of things automotive, you must have this book.