The Automobile in American History and Culture: A Reference Guide
Book by Michael L. Berger; Greenwood Press, 2001

Preface
The Automobile in American History and Culture is part of a Greenwood Press series designed to provide evaluative surveys of bibliographic material in selected aspects of American popular culture. Nonetheless, it should be complete enough to serve as a thorough introduction to the many dimensions of automotive studies, providing multiple starting points for novices and professionals alike who wish to do research on a given topic. Hopefully, even advanced scholars will find some material here with which they were previously unfamiliar. Since the majority of the works cited are of a scholarly nature and thus have footnotes and a bibliography, even a single item is capable of creating a multiplier effect.

Unlike bibliographic lists, which simply categorize works under subject headings, or annotated bibliographies, which follow a similar format but add some descriptive material immediately following the citation, this guide links together a multiple number of books in a sequence of narrative essays. Those essays not only explain the nature of an individual work but place it in a broader context within the field of American automotive studies. As such, this guide should be of assistance both in the conceptualization and in the completion of previously formulated research studies. In addition, those researchers who have an interest in a general area of automotive studies but have not yet settled on a specific topic should find this guide to be valuable. It provides a resource with which to examine the entire field and its structure before deciding which particular subject to investigate in depth. One of the advantages of this essay approach is that the chapters and the sections of which they are composed have a narrative integrity that allows them to be read either individually or as a portion of a larger overview of the field.

Besides providing an introduction to the literature in the field of automotive studies, it is hoped that this guide will make a second significant contribution in the form of the schema created for it. In attempting to organize the vast amount of material, the author has found it necessary to design a unique structural framework, or schema, within which to discuss it. Hopefully, that framework will be helpful to others looking for ways of organizing their work and for insights into the relationships that exist among various topics. Such a schema also may assist researchers in a particular area of automotive studies to more discretely define their specialty and provide a framework for the organization of new publications as they appear. In sum, if The Automobile in American History and Culture fosters additional research regarding the nature and significance of the motor car's impact on American history and life, it may be said to have succeeded in its purpose. In the eyes of many, serious study in this field, other than of a business or biographic nature, began in 1965 with the publication of John B. Rae's The Automobile: A Brief History. Thus, automotive studies as a field of scholarship is only a little over a generation old. It seems appropriate that the publication of this guide closely follows a number of anniversary celebrations commemorating the centennial of the automobile in the United States. Hopefully, both will lead to a renewed interest in, and expansion of, research and publication regarding what some consider to be the most significant technological artifact of the 20th

century. SELECTIVITY Any user of a reference guide such as this is entitled to know the criteria by which items were selected for inclusion. The most obvious criterion was that an item be concerned with the social, economic, and political impact of the automobile on American history and life. For the purpose of this guide, "automobile" is defined as a self-propelled, multi-purpose vehicle used for personal (as opposed to commercial) transportation. Thus, one will find little here on bicycles, buses, and trucks, even though the history of each intersects with that of the motor car. While such vehicles as motorcycles or snowmobiles might seem to fit our definition, they are excluded because they are not generally viewed as multi-purpose vehicles, but rather primarily as recreational ones.

In the same vein, this guide makes no attempt to include the literature concerned with associated industries, such as the rubber and petrochemical ones, and the people connected with them, except insofar as they directly impact on a singular event in automotive history, such as the oil embargoes of the 1970s. Similarly, except in that it has specific social or economic implications, there is no discussion of civil engineering topics such as road, bridge, or tunnel construction; traffic management; road repair and maintenance (including snow removal); or industrial design.

As noted above, the primary purpose of this guide is to further research relative to the influence of the motor car on American history and life. Thus, every effort has been made to include all relevant books that would be classified as scholarly in nature. In most cases, this meant that the work had to evidence a research base, that it built upon earlier scholarship. Footnotes and a bibliography were taken as indicators of this status. As a result, primary source materials; sales and technical literature related to the automobile and its industry; government and corporate reports; polemics and other writing of a transitory or ephemeral nature (including the results of experimental research); non-fiction written primarily for the juvenile market; and "how-to" materials of whatever type have generally been excluded.