First published 1986
Marshall opens her lens on the earliest horseless carriages of the 1890s, when inventors tinkered with steam engines and electric motors in cramped workshops. She follows the automobile's transformation from luxury novelty to mass production marvel. Henry Ford's assembly lines revolutionized manufacturing while designers crafted sleek Art Deco bodies in the 1930s. Post-war America embraced chrome-laden behemoths with tail fins reaching skyward. The oil crises of the 1970s forced manufacturers toward compact efficiency. Marshall captures each era through carefully curated photographs that reveal changing social attitudes toward mobility, status, and design. Her visual narrative shows how cars shaped cities, suburbs, and daily life across more than a century of innovation.
Genres: history, 20th-century, non-fiction, 21st-century, photography, art-history, cars
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking, visual
Tropes: visual-narrative
Period: 1890s, 1930s, 1970s
Hardcover · MACDONALD