America's Automobile Culture

The book is divided into nine chapters, plus a preface and index. Foster begins with the historical development of the automobile. He claims that although the car culture did not reach its maturity until after World War II, the political, economic and social frameworks affecting it were in place before the war (2). He suggests that Americans were always looking to expand their horizons, including vacationing, traveling and moving. Although trolleys, bicycles, horse and buggies and ships provided the means of travel, roads were poor and people could not travel far. Machine-powered devices that could move great distances were envisioned by many people, and eventually railroad technology was

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transit as the needs of the suburb became paramount. Foster contends that suburban living also had major ramifications for race relations in the USA. While blue-collar, ethnic Americans such as Italian-Americans, were able to realize their dream of one-family home ownership, a backyard and a good car to get around in, African Americans were excluded from early suburban developments such as Levittown in New York. The book pays a great deal of attention to the big three auto companies of Detroit, including corporate managerial problems, conflicts between management, unions and labor, the impact of consumer tastes on design, the economic impact of Japanese auto production, government bailouts of economically troubled automakers, and personal stories of key personnel in the industry such as Lee Iacocca and John De Lorean. Foster also provides many descriptions of various vehicles including muscle cars, drag cars, stock cars, luxury cars, economy cars and SUVs. Foster discusses the ôunprecedented spread of the automobile in the 1950s and 1960sö and its affect on American culture ranging from popular musicùrock and rollùto automobile-related occupations and teenagers" (65-67). He gives examples of how the youth culture used cars
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Approximate Word count = 1735
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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