Karl Ludvigsen (2026) stopped by to “humbly put forward” his book, Porsche: Excellence Was Expected, as the “quintessence of an auto history.” In a comment, he noted that the book first came out “in 1978 with 888 pages about Porsches and it is now four volumes, having passed through the three-volume stage. I fully overhauled the whole book when the four-volume version was undertaken.”
Ludvigsen was responding to my review of Richard Langworth’s (1977) book about Kaiser-Frazer, which I called “one of the best auto histories in my library.”
I can’t directly comment on Ludvigsen’s book because I haven’t read it. My focus as an automotive historian — if I may be presumptuous enough to give myself that label — has been on the U.S. auto industry, particularly in the postwar period.
However, this may be a good moment to talk in greater detail about what I think constitutes a “quintessential” auto history book.
Who is auto history primarily written for?
One of the challenges of ranking auto history books is that they are published for multiple — and sometimes competing — reasons. The dominant goal of books I see at the big-box stores are coffee-table ornaments for car buffs.
All of those car buffs may not be collectors per se, but the assumption seems to be that they are likely to be fanboys. In other words, that what they most want in a history book is a nostalgic, pom-pom-waving parade back through the golden yesteryears of their favorite brand’s vehicles.
Also see ‘Car porn dominates Amazon.com’s top-100 automotive books’
This type of book can also please surviving automakers, who are always looking for ways to burnish the legacy of their brands. For example, the following two titles may as well have been written by p.r. people: Jeep: The History of America’s Greatest Vehicle (Foster, 2014) and The Legend of American Motors: The full history of America’s most innovative automaker (Cranswick, 2022).
At least these two books are explicit about their intentions. Both offer such sympathetic portraits of their brands that it is hard to see how even the most doctrinaire fanboy or demanding p.r. person would get mad at the authors.
But what about independent analysis?
Another potential goal of a book could be to offer independent journalistic analysis. For example, I have been most interested in writers who have assessed why Detroit experienced one of the most dramatic industrial collapses of the last century. That requires at least some critique rather than p.r. over easy.
My sense is that independent analysis has rarely come from writers who earn a living in the automotive media. That may partly reflect the revolving door between media outlets and automakers. In addition, auto executives have been known to put pressure on car-buff magazines to squelch negative coverage. Even major trade journals such as Automotive News have so closely aligned with the industry that coverage of its leaders can often read like exercises in resume polishing.
Some of the most critical assessments of the auto industry have come from writers who had not worked for an auto media outlet. Particularly good examples include David Halberstam’s (1986) The Reckoning and Keith Bradsher’s (2002) High and Mighty: SUVs — The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got that Way.
That said, even books written by journalists who work for daily newspapers may pull their punches, perhaps partly to protect their future access to sources. For example, Bryce Hoffman’s (2012) book, American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company, strikes me has having a decidedly softball quality even though the author insisted that the automaker had no control over its content.
What kind of information do you most care about?
If I go by what I see at the big-box stores, automotive books can blur together into a sea of sameness. However, if you take the time to explore the more obscure corners of the auto history field, one can find an admirable amount of diversity.
For example, a handful of scholars have written books that offer very different takes than car-buff writers. One of my favorites is Donald T. Critchlow’s (1996) Studebaker: The Life and Death of an American Corporation. This is the antithesis of a car-buff book in both presentation and content, but I think it offers unusually valuable insights into why Studebaker died. That’s despite including only parenthetical information about the automaker’s product line — and sometimes getting details wrong that a car-buff editor could have easily corrected.
Also see ‘What happens when car buffs and scholarly historians don’t collaborate’
What I like about Critchlow’s treatment of Studebaker is that he focuses on the dramatic changes in the relationship between corporate management, its workforce and the region where the automaker’s main facilities were located. In contrast, car-buff writers tend to downplay or ignore altogether management-labor issues. Dude, it’s all about the gear.
I would be the first to admit that Critchlow’s book may be a real yawner to most car buffs — and Ludvigsen’s Porsche book may very well be the most appealing. That’s entirely okay. Indie Auto isn’t trying to hit the top of the pop charts. My goal is more nerdy: to help advance American automotive history as a substantive field of study.
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Bradsher, Keith; 2002. High and Mighty: SUVs — The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got that Way. Public Affairs, New York, NY.
- Cranswick, Marc; 2022. The Legend of American Motors: The full history of America’s most innovative automaker. Veloce Publishing, UK.
- Critchlow, Donald T.; 1996. Studebaker: The Life and Death of an American Corporation. Indiana University Press, Indianapolis, IN.
- Foster, Patrick R.; 2014. Jeep: The History of America’s Greatest Vehicle. Motorbooks, Minneapolis, MN.
- Halberstam, David; 1986. The Reckoning. William Morrow & Co., New York, NY.
- Hoffman, Bryce G.; 2012. American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company. Crown Business, New York, NY.
- Langworth, Richard M.; 1975. Kaiser-Frazer: The Last Onslaught on Detroit. Princeton Publishing, Princeton, NJ.
- Ludvigsen, Karl; 2026. Comment in “Langworth’s Kaiser-Frazer book still represents gold standard of auto histories.” Posted on Feb. 10 at 6:24 am.
Hmmmm. Not too many comments here, so far, but l’ll try anyway and l hope that there will be more. l want to learn from others what automotive history/analysis book they would most like to be marooned with on a desert island.
I like part of Steve’s last sentence – “to help advance American automotive history” – and it has been fun here to try to do so and make our “arguments”. To make our arguments valid, we here all need knowledge – hence Steve’s interest in the books we like. Perhaps unfortunately for me and my participation here, l do like “ancient” auto history in addition to Studebaker knowledge. Most discussion here is tuned, understandably, to post-war topics – but hopefully not all the time. There is a whole world of pre-war (and pre BOTH wars) knowledge out there that is just as fascinating, perhaps even more so. I enjoy that old stuff. Hence my choice of book(s).
If deserted on an island l would be most happy with a copy of “The American Car since 1775” by Automobile Quarterly, published in 1971. Contributors and editors include Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark, Richard Langworth, Jan Norbye,, John Conde,and Lord Montague of Beaulieu to name-drop a few. 500 pages of information, including a listing of all 5,000 (yes, 5,000) names of automobiles produced in the USA and Canada, their years of manufacture and their addresses! Tucks too. The early experimentals are brought to light, and a listing of calendar production from 1896 to 1970. There is more, some of it typical of period auto histories, but LOTS of info that is very hard to find elsewhere.
If you will allow another book l found very useful in putting the pre-war story together for me, it is “American Automobile Manufacturers – The First Forty Years” by John B. Rae, published in 1959 (with the forward by George Romney!). It traces all the founders from the first days – before it was even called an industry. The accomplishments of the tinkerers, engineers, entrepreneurs, bicycle makers, salesman, immigrants, the wealthy, and the escapees from poverty, are chronicled and their surprising interaction with one another. A good read.
Oops – one more recommendation if you have an interest in Studebaker. There are two books with the same title – weird! Both are “Studebaker – the Complete Story”. The one by Pat Foster is the latter one and is more of a coffee table book that does not live up to its title. l hope that the title was insisted upon by his publisher and that Pat would have preferred another. The better and earlier book, with a deeper dive and lots more info, was authored by William Cannon and Fred K Fox in 1981. Read this one, and you will be able to “speak Studebaker” fairly fluently.
Your assertion that “auto executives have been known to put pressure on car-buff magazines to squelch negative coverage” can be the subject of an experience of your truly. For several years when Motor Trend was edited by Eric Dahlquist he and I did our best to bring detailed fact and deeper analysis to the pages of MT. I held the position of East Coast Editor into 1976 when I also had a column headed “Out of Round”. However a new editor arrived that year. When my column disclosed too much detail for the liking of GM its people put pressure on the business side of Motor Trend to do something about that pesky Ludvigsen guy. In turn the new editor acquiesced. By the end of the year I was persona non grata.
Yup. From afar the automotive media — particularly in the postwar era — looks like it could have been a particularly difficult field to navigate if one wished to operate with the level of journalistic independence more typically displayed by reporters for major daily newspapers. Not that life was perfect for the latter, but particularly as the Vietnam war cultivated more questioning of American institutions, it became easier to live up to journalistic dictums such as to report with “neither fear nor favor.”
Two spring to mind. Richard Langworth’s Studebaker 1946-1966: The Classic Postwar Years. Luckily he could interview many of the people involved and it shows.But my favourite remains GN Georgano’s The Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars. 5000+ car histories. Petrol Head bliss. Even discovered one obscure Irish car was built around the corner in a then extant garage.