A brief history of motion : from the wheel, to the car, to what comes next Cover Image

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A brief history of motion : from the wheel, to the car, to what comes next / Tom Standage.

Summary:

Tom Standage's fleet-footed and surprising global histories have delighted readers and cemented his reputation as one of our leading interpreters of technologies past and present. Now, he returns with a provocative account of a sometimes-overlooked form of technology--personal transportation--and explores how it has shaped societies and cultures over millennia. Beginning around 3,500 BCE with the wheel--a device that didn't catch on until a couple thousand years after its invention--Standage zips through the eras of horsepower, trains, and bicycles, revealing how each successive mode of transit embedded itself in the world we live in, from the geography of our cities to our experience of time to our notions of gender. Then, delving into the history of the automobile's development, Standage explores the social resistance to cars and the upheaval that their widespread adoption required. Cars changed how the world was administered, laid out, and policed, how it looked, sounded, and smelled--and not always in the ways we might have preferred. Today--after the explosive growth of ride-sharing and years of breathless predictions about autonomous vehicles--the social transformations spurred by coronavirus and overshadowed by climate change create a unique opportunity to critically reexamine our relationship to the car. With A Brief History of Motion, Standage overturns myths, considers roads not taken, and invites us to look at our past with fresh eyes so we can create the future we want to see. -- Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 9781635573619
ISBN: 1635573610
ISBN: 9781526608321
ISBN: 1526608324
ISBN: 9781526608314
ISBN: 1526608316
Physical Description: xv, 246 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Publisher: New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.
Copyright: ©2021

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-233) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Wheels in the ancient world -- Your carriage awaits -- Under one's own steam -- The rubber hits the road -- You are what you drive -- Who owns the streets? -- The road to suburbia -- Car culture -- The fall and rise of the electric car -- All hail the ride -- From horseless to driverless -- The road ahead.