1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910818487903321

Autore

Seiler Cotten

Titolo

Republic of drivers : a cultural history of automobility in America / / Cotten Seiler

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 2008

ISBN

9786612070228

1-282-07022-3

0-226-74565-1

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (242 p.)

Disciplina

303.48/320973

Soggetti

Automobiles - Social aspects - United States - History - 20th century

National characteristics, American

Social values - United States - History - 20th century

United States Social conditions 20th century

United States Civilization 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-215) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. Automobility and American Subjectivity -- Chapter One: Individualism, Taylorization, and the Crisis of Republican Selfhood -- Chapter Two Workmen's Compensation, Women's Emancipation: The Promise of Automobility, 1895-1929 -- Chapter Three. Crafting Autonomous Subjects: Automobility and the Cold War -- Chapter Four. " So That We as a Race Might Have Something Authentic to Travel By": African American Automobility and Midcentury Liberalism -- Chapter Five. " How Can the Driver Be Remodeled?": Automobility and the Liberal Subject -- Epilogue. Automobility's Futures -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Rising gas prices, sprawl and congestion, global warming, even obesity-driving is a factor in many of the most contentious issues of our time. So how did we get here? How did automobile use become so vital to the identity of Americans? Republic of Drivers looks back at the period between 1895 and 1961-from the founding of the first automobile factory in America to the creation of the Interstate Highway



System-to find out how driving evolved into a crucial symbol of freedom and agency. Cotten Seiler combs through a vast number of historical, social scientific, philosophical, and literary sources to illustrate the importance of driving to modern American conceptions of the self and the social and political order. He finds that as the figure of the driver blurred into the figure of the citizen, automobility became a powerful resource for women, African Americans, and others seeking entry into the public sphere. And yet, he argues, the individualistic but anonymous act of driving has also monopolized our thinking about freedom and democracy, discouraging the crafting of a more sustainable way of life. As our fantasies of the open road turn into fears of a looming energy crisis, Seiler shows us just how we ended up a republic of drivers-and where we might be headed.