CARS: DRIVING INTO HISTORY
The car is an inescapable fact of modern life. Along with other motorised road vehicles, it can be used for personal journeys, power economies and move entire armies. In transportation terms, it has completely changed the way humanity has administered, laid out and policed itself since it was invented in the 1880s.
The car’s ubiquity has been revolutionary and transformed the human experience in just over 100 years. Its presence has had a significantly positive and – as climate change makes increasingly clear – negative impact on the world. Today, the relationship between people and cars is under ever increasing scrutiny. However, compared to the current debate, the car’s origins are less well known and its early history is intriguing and often surprising.
Tom Standage, the author of the recently published A Brief History of Motion, is an expert on historical engineering and technology. His new book explores the confused and bumpy road that led to the invention of the car and how it became an essential part of the modern world’s development. He discusses steam-powered road vehicles, why the inventions of cars, bicycles and railways are inextricably linked, and how smartphones could shape the future of transport.
EXPERT BIO
As well as his work for The Economist, Tom Standage ha s also written for the New York Times, The Guardian, Wired and other publications. He has a degree in engineering and computer science from the University of Oxford and has written several other bestselling history books. To purchase a copy of A Brief History of Motion visit: www.bloomsbury.com
STEAM & BICYCLES
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