Drive On! A Social History of the Motor Car

Contemporary Review, May, 2004

Drive On! A Social History of the Motor Car. L. J. K. Setright. Granta Books. [pounds sterling]25.00. ix 405 pages. ISBN 1-86207-628-6. This title was first published by Palawan Press in 2002. As the author writes in his Preamble, 'the social history of the motor car is infinite in its ramifications'.

The author is concerned as much with society's impact on the car as with the car's impact on society. He has partially eschewed the chronological approach and has instead organised his text along themes. Having said that, his first part is an 'historical review'. The remainder of the text is divided into four parts which examine how various countries coped with the new invention, the effect of motorised traffic on social life and on the landscape, the technological advances made in the car industry during the twentieth century and, finally, the effect of car traffic on everyday life.