Christopher W. Wells, Car
Country: An Environmental History. Seattle: University of Washington Press,
2012. ISBN 978-0-295-99215-0.
Christopher Wells' environmental history of the automobile
in America to 1960 fills an important gap concerning our knowledge of the
complex relationship that evolved between the adoption of the car and changes
in the land. Indeed, both rural and
urban use in the U.S. experienced a profound transition during the first half
of the twentieth century, much of it due to the widespread diffusion of the
automobile. But it was not a one way street, so to speak, as landscape changes
did much to prepare the way for the automobile to be at the center of American
life. As highways and byways were constructed in response to the needs of
numerous constituencies and resulting traffic, the nation became covered with
concrete and asphalt, its nonrenewable energy reserves depleted, and its air
fouled. Concurrently, however, in the trade-off, Americans reaped the benefit
of sustained economic growth, flexibility and freedom for the constraints of
space, a psychological obsession with speed, and the conveniences associated
with a savings of time.
Beginning with a survey of transportation during the late 19
century and ending with the emergence of a full blown automobile-dependent Car
Country in 1960, Wells takes us on a rather relaxed journey that centers on the
built environment, arguing that the evolving constructed environment resulted
in an America where for most individuals, cars became indispensable to everyday
living. Thus what we are left with is a
classic case of path dependency. Yet imbalance rather than authentic
flexibility was the dominating characteristic inherent to American
transportation options by mid-twentieth century. And in attempting to
understand how and why this happened, Wells subsequently pursued a line of
scholarship that takes us to this book.
Divided into four sections and held together with a
chronological thread, the author's main argument is that land use in America
was the key to determining American driving patterns. Land was set aside for
various types of thoroughfares (the infrastructure), and traffic laws, policies,
and practices were negotiated amongst a group of technical specialists, urban
planners, business interests, politicians, and the public. What ultimately emerged was a monoculture "that
sacrifices environmental resiliency and complexity," and that this
"lost complexity is not just ecological, but social, technological, and
economic as well." (p. 289). The spirit of this book, then, borrows much
from Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of
Great American Cities (1961) and Jane Holtz Kay's Asphalt Nation (1998), without being nearly as shrill as the
latter.
While much of the contents of this book contained no real
surprises, two ancillary topics were of particular interest to this
reader. First, and drawing on the
perceptive work of Peter Norton, Wells raises an important question concerning
the viability of what might be called the "love-affair" thesis
associated with automobility in America. And here he is right on in characterizing
this interpretation as being on thin ice. More likely the love affair with the
automobile reflected the thoughts of only a small minority of American car
owners at any one time in history, and was perhaps the product of Detroit Three
publicists and their journalist followers. This is definitely an area that
needs careful fleshing out, but it is safe to say that for many Americans the
automobile was always a contrivance to take them from one place to another, and
nothing more. Secondly, in his
discussion of the Ford Model T, Wells claims that "The American
environment -- and especially poor American roads -- thus had a direct and
profound impact on how automotive technology evolved in the United States."
(p.44). Again, the author is on to something important conceptually, but he
does not follow this up with much of an historical analysis beyond the coming
of the closed car in the 1920s. To examine the changing environment in the
post-World War II era and engineering and design seems to be a logical follow
up, with perhaps fruitful consequences in terms of the history of technology.
Such an approach may well begin to explain Detroit excesses during the 1950s
and 1960s.
In sum, Wells' monograph is a thoroughly researched and
extremely well documented study. The attached bibliography is of real value to
anyone interested in transportation history.
I will assign this book in my car culture courses, as it is exemplary of
excellent scholarship.
John Heitmann
Department of History
University of Dayton
Dayton, Ohio
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