American Ambulance: 1900-2002 [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Walter Mp Mccall (Author) "By popular definition, an ambulance is the conveyance used to transport the sick or injured to infirmary, hospital or other sanitary place where medical treatment..." (more)
Key Phrases: professional car industry, professional car manufacturers, limousine combination, New York, Miller-Meteor Cadillac, Superior Coach (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Follow up to his successful Classic American Ambulances 1900-1979 with a new and expanded title that fills in a heretofore missing chapter in American emergency vehicle history.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Iconografix, Inc.; illustrated edition edition (December 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158388081X
• ISBN-13: 978-1583880814
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,450,927 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For Professional Car Lovers, December 26, 2002

By A Customer

I operate a web site dealing with EMS history and TV's "Emergency!" So this book tickled my fancy when I saw it on Ebay.

I did whirr whirr noises when first looking at the book. Fascinating vehicles. Many of the machines were pro cars that were restored but a few were original pictures. I found it very interesting and the author did try to mention the modular/van rigs of the Seventies onwards. I wish he had focused more on these truck-type rigs, especially pre-Seventies rigs of Los Angeles and New York.

He credited Horton with the first modular ambulance; however Swab preceded them in 1962. Also Jim Page's rescue truck did no transporting. Otherwise he did a good job.

Meanwhile, would someone please write a book on the history of EMS including ambulances, emergency rooms and patient care (and WITH pictures)? Jim Page tried this with "The Paramedics" but its focus is too narrow. So much has happened in America's EMS and due to so many good, wonderful people eg. Julian Wise, Deke Farrington MD, Jim Page, Bob Cinader, Michael Criley MD, and Eugene Nagel MD. They deserve to be mentioned and their story told.

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't believe how great this book is!, August 21, 2007

By	Night Train (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

I have been looking for this book for 3 years before I found a copy in perfect condition. It has everything I was looking for: great pictures, clear
descriptions, detailed information and it was organized so that I could cross reference it with the other books I have as a collector. I have owned 5 different automobile-based ambulances along with other classic cars and I use this book to help me research buying for my collection and as a reference when I have sold to other collectors.

I recommend this and all books by Walter McCall.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Yet another `professional car' ambulance book, December 7, 2002

By A Customer

An ambulance book written by a car collector.
The `professional cars'/`limousine ambulances' from the 50s to the 70s form the main part of the book. More modern vehicles are relegated to a rather short annex, reinforcing the European belief that US prehospital emergency care failed to progress in the last decades.
Some interior views are available, but the main focus is on the car in the ambulance, not on patient care.
Many photos have been taken at Professional Car Society meetings and show restored collector's items instead of original pictures.
The quality of the photos is excellent, most important in a picture book.
The book contains lots of the weird and wonderful, giving the reader endless pleasure discovering the oddities our colleagues of ages past had worked in. I did not realize that even in the late 1970s there still existed combination vehicles between hearse and ambulance.
For anybody interested in ambulances based on station wagons this book is recommended reading, those more interested in `modern emergency vehicles' (= from 1970 onwards) may feel rather disappointed.