Technology and Culture

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 627 America and the Automobile: Technology, Reform and Social Change, 1893— 1923. By Peter J. Ling. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990; distributed by St. Martin’s Press, New York. Pp. vi + 202; notes, bibliography, index. $59.95. At first glance, America and the Automobile appears to be a skillful synthesis of almost everything that has been written on the social history of the automobile. But on closer reading Peter Ling’s work is more thanjust a synthesis; he has added some interesting new analysis to the history of the automobile. As a British scholar of American studies, Ling has presumably directed his work primarily to a British audience exposed to less automobile history than its American counterpart has been. It is not surprising, then, that much of the material Ling discusses will be familiar to the American reader who has studied automobile history. Even so, the book should not be lightly dismissed. America and the Automobile attempts one of the most comprehensive social histories of the automobile. Ling goes beyond the obvious social changes that are now so well known, such as changing consumption patterns, new social institutions, suburbanization, and new travel habits. He ad­ dresses these themes but also sets them in the context of broader economic and social changes of the period, namely the growth of corporate capitalism and Progressive reform. This is the real contri­ bution of the book. The author argues that, “by incorporating the rural hinterland more effectively within industrial capitalism, the automobile, and its infrastructural counterpart, highway improve­ ment, strengthened the characteristic ‘politics of accommodation’ of the Progressive Era rather than the Populist ‘politics of resistance’ ” (p. 1). His focus on the Progressives brings him to describe his work as stressing “the conservative intentions of liberal reform” (p. 4). Ling is well versed in the history of the Progressive Era and in automobile history, anpl he brings them together in a masterfully subtle way. He shows us the political context in which social reforms that were beneficial to the automobile and its industry were con­ structed, in an environment totally receptive to the new transporta­ tion technology. After the introduction, “The End of the ‘Island’ Community” describes the transformation of the rural community with the intro­ duction of the automobile. In “The Politics of Highway Engineering,” Ling points out that the authority of the automobile came very quickly. Even though large expenditures on new roadways benefited only the few motorists, there was little serious thought of restricting the new transportation, as he illustrates in a 1906 quote from Scientific American: “The automobile has come to stay. It is an industry too vast, a sport too noble to be subjected to any restriction which would ultimately kill its popularity” (p. 49). Chapter 4 addresses the com­ pulsory topic of suburbanization and the central role of transporta- 628 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE tion in suburban development and growth as well as the demise of public transportation. The fifth chapter, “The Columbian Exposi­ tion,” is probably the weakest and does not quite succeed in its claim to “challenge the mythology of a virtually automatic American ‘love affair’ with the automobile.” Finally, “Fordism and the Architecture of Production” provides a good summary of the pertinent literature on Henry Ford and his company. This book does not offer significant new material that would change our basic understanding of the automobile. But the author has looked carefully at two bodies of literature, the history of Progressive reform and the history of the automobile, provided a clear and concise summary, and filled in some small gaps in the literature on the automobile. For these reasons the book would be very useful in the classroom. Beyond serving as a synthesis, however, this careful study has led the author to conclude that the automobile played a larger role in Progressive reforms than has been previously acknowledged. For that contribution the book is worthy of the attention of scholars in both fields. Lindy Biggs Dr. Biggs is assistant professor of history at Auburn University. She is currently working on articles and a book manuscript on the automobile industry and the Ford Motor Company. Visions of a Flying Machine...