In his cultural analysis of the motor car in Germany,   Wolfgang   Sachs starts from the assumption that the automobile is more than a   means of   transportation and that its history cannot be understood merely as a   triumphant   march of technological innovation. Instead, Sachs examines the history   of the   automobile from the late 1880s until today for evidence on the nature of   dreams   and desires embedded in modern culture. Written in a lively style and   illustrated by a wealth of cartoons, advertisements, newspaper stories,   and   propaganda, this book explores the nature of Germany's love affair with   the   automobile. A ''history of our desires'' for speed, wealth, violence,   glamour,   progress, and poweras refracted through images of the automobileit is   at once   fascinating and provocative.  Sachs recounts the development of the automobile industry and the impact   on   German society of the marketing and promotion of the motor car. As cars   became   more affordable and more common after World War II, advertisers fanned   the   competition for status, refining their techniques as ownership became   ever  more   widespread.  Sachs concludes by demonstrating that the triumphal procession of   private   motorization has in fact become an intrusion. The grand dreams once   attached to   the automobile have aged. Sachs appeals for the cultivation of new   dreams born   of the futility of the old ones, dreams of ''a society liberated from   progress,''   in which location, distance, and speed are reconceived in more   appropriately   humane dimensions.

For Love of the Automobile: Looking Back into the History of Our Desires PDF

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