7 New Car History Books for Your Summer Reading List
In need of some car-related reading material this summer? Start by picking up one of these recently published books on automotive history. It’s a great way to stay entertained on a hot day while learning more about topics as diverse as racing, road infrastructure, and the social impact of the automobile.
Give the Gift of Reading: Book picks for the car buff in your life
The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, the Legacy by Charles K. Hyde
Product Details: 272 pages (paperback)
Publication Date: July 18, 2023
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
From their automotive innovations to their influence on the Detroit community, the Dodge brothers led short but eventful lives while establishing a legacy to be reckoned with. John and Horace Dodge aren’t quite as well-known as William C. Durant, Henry Ford, Louis Chevrolet, and other early automotive giants, but according to this exhaustively researched dual biography, they deserve a similar level of recognition.
City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America’s Highways by Megan Kimble
Product Details: 368 pages (hardcover)
Publication Date: April 2, 2024
Publisher: Crown
It’s easy to drive on city highways every day without ever considering their origins or community impact. This book digs deeper, exploring the history of how urban highway construction has disrupted communities, perpetuated racial discrimination, and triggered a host of environmental and social repercussions. It also examines how these impacts resonate in the present day — and how the future of transportation could play out differently and more sustainably.
Wheels of Her Own: American Women and the Automobile, 1893-1929 by Carla R. Lesh
Product Details: 236 pages (paperback)
Publication Date: April 3, 2024
Publisher: McFarland
America’s early automobile era was also a period of intense social upheaval for women. In Wheels of Her Own, historian Carla R. Lesh takes an in-depth look at how access to cars offered new opportunities — and challenges — for women of all races as they pushed back against society’s restrictions and fought for more freedom, autonomy, and mobility.
Street Fight: The Chicago Taxi Wars of the 1920s by Anne Morrissy
Product Details: 272 pages (hardcover)
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
Publisher: Lyons Press
Shootings, bombings, sabotage, and bribery — mayhem during Chicago’s Roaring Twenties wasn’t just limited to iconic gangsters like Al Capone. It also spilled over into the city’s competitive new taxi industry. This book delivers all the violent, colorful, and true details of how the Yellow Cab Company and the Checker Taxi Company fought for supremacy on the streets of the Windy City.
Women Behind the Wheel: An Unexpected and Personal History of the Car by Nancy Nichols
Product Details: 240 pages (hardcover)
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
Publisher: Pegasus Books
As the daughter of a car salesman, Nancy A. Nichols grew up around automobiles and was acutely aware of their presence in her life. In this book, she combines autobiography with history to explore how cars intersect with women’s lives, how driving has expanded women’s freedom, and how the dangers and obstacles that women face have been reflected and magnified by America’s culture of cars and driving.
The Formula: How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World’s Fastest-Growing Sport by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg
Product Details: 304 pages (hardcover)
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
Publisher: Mariner Books
The popularity of Formula 1 racing has exploded in recent years — but how did this happen? Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg of the Wall Street Journal have the answers. In this fast-paced book, they interview all the major players and tell the story of the rivalries, personalities, automotive innovations, and financial maneuvers that fueled the ascendancy of F1.
The Race to the Future: 8,000 Miles to Paris – The Adventure That Accelerated the Twentieth Century by Kassia St. Clair
Product Details: 384 pages (hardcover)
Publication Date: May 14, 2024
Publisher: Liveright
In 1907, cars (and the infrastructure to support them) were still a new technology, and an automobile race across the deserts, mountains, and remote regions of Asia and Europe was an especially daunting prospect. This book tells the thrilling story of the Peking-to-Paris Motor Challenge and the automotive daredevils who braved the journey. Even more importantly, it explores how the race grabbed the world’s attention and helped to usher in a host of upheavals in technology, communications, and politics — for both good and ill.
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A longtime editor/writer and recently transplanted Hoosier, Caleb Cook lives in Xenia, Ohio. His favorite activities are reading and listening to music, although he occasionally emerges from the heap of books and vinyl records in his basement to stand blinking in the sunlight. Once fully acclimated to the outside world again, he can be observed hanging out with his wife, attempting a new recipe in the kitchen, attending movies, walking the dog, or wandering into a local brewery to inquire about what’s on tap. See more articles by Caleb.