The Automobile in American History and Culture: A Reference Guide (American Popular Culture)

516 Pages·2001·21.41 MB·English

by  Michael L. Berger

The Automobile
in American History
and Culture
Recent Titles in
American Popular Culture
Recreational Vehicles and Travel: A Resource Guide
Bernard Mergen
Magic: A Reference Guide
Earle J. Coleman
Newspapers: A Reference Guide
Richard A. Schwarzlose
Radio: A Reference Guide
Thomas Allen Greenfield
Popular American Housing: A Reference Guide
Ruth Brent and Benyamin Schwarz, editors
Fashion and Costume in American Popular Culture: A Reference Guide
Valerie Burnham Oliver
Editorial Cartooning and Caricature: A Reference Guide
Paul P. Somers, Jr.
American Mystery and Detective Novels: A Reference Guide
Larry Landrum
Self-Help and Popular Religion in Early American Culture: An Interpretive Guide
Roy M. Anker
Self-Help and Popular Religion in Modern American Culture: An Interpretive Guide
Roy M. Anker
Pornography and Sexual Representation: A Reference Guide
Joseph W. Slade
Sports: A Reference Guide and Critical Commentary, 1980-1999
Donald L. Deardorffll
The Automobile
in American History
and Culture
A REFERENCE GUIDE
Michael L. Berger
American Popular Culture
M. Thomas Inge, Series Editor
GREENWOOD PRESS
Westport, Connecticut • London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Berger, Michael L., 1943-
The automobile in American history and culture : a reference guide / Michael L. Berger.
p. cm.—(American popular culture, ISSN 0193-6859)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-313-24558-4 (alk. paper)
1. Automobiles—United States. 2. Automobile industry and trade—United States.
3. United States—Social life and customs. I. Title. II. Series.
TL23.B43 2001
016.629222W73—dc21 00-064049
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2001 by Michael L. Berger
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without
the express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00-064049
ISBN: 0-313-24558-4
ISSN: 0193-6859
First published in 2001
Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.greenwood.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Copyright Acknowledgment
Portions of the introduction first appeared in Michael L. Berger and Maurice Duke, "The Auto
mobile," in M. Thomas Inge, ed., Handbook of American Popular Culture, 3 vols., 2nd ed. (West-
port, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1989), pp. 107-110. Copyright © 1989 by M. Thomas Inge.
Reproduced with permission of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., Westport, CT.
For my parents,
Ethel J. and Clarence Q. Berger,
who taught me the value of the written word
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction xvii
I. General Industrial Histories and Biographies 1
1. Histories of the Automobile and Automotive Manufacturing 3
2. Famous Automotive Personalities 35
3. Organization, Management, and Sales within the
Automotive Industry 69
4. Automotive Engineering and Design 105
II. Specialized Sociological and Cultural Studies 141
5. The Automobile and Interpersonal Relationships 143
6. The Automobile and Community Change 173
7. The Automobile and American Culture 205
8 Personal Leisure and Recreation 241
9 The Sport of Motor Racing 275
III. Political Analyses and Polemics 307
10. Government Influences: Regulations, Resources, and Roads 309
viii CONTENTS
11. Contemporary Socioeconomic Problems 341
IV. Reference and Research Sources 375
12. Reference Works and Periodicals 377
Appendix 1: Selected Chronology of American Automotive
History Events 407
Appendix 2: Research Collections 429
Author Index 443
Subject Index 465
Preface
The Automobile in American History and Culture is part of a Greenwood Press
series designed to provide evaluative surveys of bibliographic material in se
lected aspects of American popular culture. Nonetheless, it should be complete
enough to serve as a thorough introduction to the many dimensions of auto
motive studies, providing multiple starting points for novices and professionals
alike who wish to do research on a given topic. Hopefully, even advanced
scholars will find some material here with which they were previously unfa
miliar. Since the majority of the works cited are of a scholarly nature and thus
have footnotes and a bibliography, even a single item is capable of creating a
multiplier effect.
Unlike bibliographic lists, which simply categorize works under subject head
ings, or annotated bibliographies, which follow a similar format but add some
descriptive material immediately following the citation, this guide links together
a multiple number of books in a sequence of narrative essays. Those essays not
only explain the nature of an individual work but place it in a broader context
within the field of American automotive studies. As such, this guide should be
of assistance both in the conceptualization and in the completion of previously
formulated research studies. In addition, those researchers who have an interest
in a general area of automotive studies but have not yet settled on a specific
topic should find this guide to be valuable. It provides a resource with which
to examine the entire field and its structure before deciding which particular
subject to investigate in depth. One of the advantages of this essay approach is
that the chapters and the sections of which they are composed have a narrative
integrity that allows them to be read either individually or as a portion of a
larger overview of the field.
Besides providing an introduction to the literature in the field of automotive