Wells, Christopher W. (Author)
For most people in the United States, going almost anywhere begins with reaching for the car keys. This is true, Christopher Wells argues, because the United States is Car Country-a nation dominated by landscapes that are difficult, inconvenient, and often even unsafe to navigate by those who are not sitting behind the wheel of a car. The prevalence of car-dependent landscapes seems perfectly natural to us today, but it is, in fact, a relatively new historical development. In Car Country, Wells rejects the idea that the nation's automotive status quo can be explained as a simple byproduct of an ardent love affair with the automobile. Instead, he takes readers on a lively tour of the evolving American landscape, charting the ways that new transportation policies and land-use practices have combined to reshape nearly every element of the built environment around the easy movement of automobiles. From the dawn of the motor age to the establishment of the Interstate Highway System and the rise of the suburbs, Wells untangles the complicated relationships between automobiles and the environment, allowing readers to see the everyday world in a completely new way. The result is a history that is essential for understanding American transportation and land-use issues today.
...MoreReview Fein, Michael R. (2014) Review of "Car Country: An Environmental History". American Historical Review (p. 212).
Review Rubenstein, James M. (2014) Review of "Car Country: An Environmental History". Journal of American History (p. 1268).
Book
Mauch, Christof;
Zeller, Thomas;
(2008)
The World Beyond the Windshield: Roads and Landscapes in the United States and Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB000950256/)
Essay Review
Seiler, Cotten;
(2010)
Author Response: The Ends of Automobility
(/isis/citation/CBB001567127/)
Book
Seiler, Cotten;
(2008)
Republic of Drivers: A Cultural History of Automobility in America
(/isis/citation/CBB000954031/)
Essay Review
Flonneau, Mathieu;
(2010)
Read Tocqueville, or Drive? A European Perspective on US “Automobilization”
(/isis/citation/CBB001567126/)
Book
Lucsko, David N.;
(2008)
The Business of Speed: The Hot Rod Industry in America, 1915--1990
(/isis/citation/CBB000952155/)
Article
Bijsterveld, Karin;
(2010)
Acoustic Cocooning: How the Car Became a Place to Unwind
(/isis/citation/CBB001035712/)
Article
Borg, Kevin;
(2012)
Les sens perdus du garagiste. Comment le savoir-faire a été disqualifié dans l'univers automobile américain
(/isis/citation/CBB001200686/)
Essay Review
Gudis, Catherine;
(2010)
Driving Consumption
(/isis/citation/CBB001567125/)
Essay Review
Collins, Martin;
(2010)
Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB001567123/)
Essay Review
Parker, Jeremy;
(2010)
Automobility and Apparatuses: Commentary on Cotten Seiler's Republic of Drivers
(/isis/citation/CBB001567124/)
Article
Raechel Lutz;
(July 2020)
Petroleum's Park: How Oil Shaped the Palisades Interstate Park, 1900–1960
(/isis/citation/CBB896872358/)
Chapter
Berger, Michael L.;
(1992)
The car's impact on the American family
(/isis/citation/CBB001181630/)
Book
Wachs, Martin;
Crawford, Margaret;
(1992)
The Car and the city: The automobile, the built environment, and daily urban life
(/isis/citation/CBB001181628/)
Article
Kroll, Gary;
(2015)
An Environmental History of Roadkill: Road Ecology and the Making of the Permeable Highway
(/isis/citation/CBB001422280/)
Article
Steel, Frances;
(2013)
Cruising New Zealand's West Coast Sounds: Fiord Tourism in the Tasman World c.1870--1910
(/isis/citation/CBB001201445/)
Article
Efrat Hildesheim;
Tal Alon-Mozes;
(2023)
The landscape of Route 854 in Israel's Galilee: Integrating nature, construction, and art in the service of a national project
(/isis/citation/CBB435015451/)
Multimedia Object
Sneha Annavarapu;
Gopakumara, Govind;
(2020)
Govind Gopakumar, “Installing Automobility: Emerging Politics of Mobility and Streets in Indian Cities” (MIT Press, 2020)
(/isis/citation/CBB427729283/)
Article
Greenstein, David E.;
(2014)
Assembling Fordizm: The Production of Automobiles, Americans, and Bolsheviks in Detroit and Early Soviet Russia
(/isis/citation/CBB001201851/)
Book
Norton, Peter D.;
(2008)
Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City
(/isis/citation/CBB000774891/)
Book
Gregory Votolato;
(2015)
Car
(/isis/citation/CBB210863924/)
Be the first to comment!