(EXPANDED FROM 6/14/2023) For good or ill, Brooks Stevens was one of the most influential independent U.S. auto design consultants of the postwar era. Despite some shaky analysis and factual lapses, the best book about […]
I feel torn in writing a review about The Complete Book of AMC Cars (2024). New auto history books are rare enough these days that anyone who navigates the gauntlet of getting published deserves applause. […]
Motor Trend’s November 1964 issue predicted a few things that didn’t happen. They included: Of these two items, a sporty Pontiac sounded more plausible — and perhaps reflected an effort by the likes of John […]
Jim Dunne, Popular Science’s Detroit editor, made a number of predictions in the first half of 1972 that didn’t pan out. For example, in the January issue he stated that for 1973 both AMC and […]
Let’s rank the 10 worst redesigns of postwar American cars that, with one partial exception, were only in production for a single year. By “postwar” I mean between 1949-79. My rankings are obviously subjective, but […]
Stuart R. Blond’s biography of Packard head James Nance is among the most unusual books in my automotive library. For one thing, Spellbinder: The Life of James J. Nance, is a two-volume set that stretches […]
(UPDATED FROM 10/16/2020) Charles K. Hyde’s history of American Motors and its constituent companies is a valuable scholarly addition to the literature. His book, Storied Independent Automakers: Nash, Hudson and American Motors, offers considerably more […]
(EXPANDED FROM 1/4/2014) American Motors Corporation: The Rise and Fall of America’s Last Independent, is an update of sorts for a book Patrick Foster published 20 years earlier. However, Foster’s newer book includes quite a […]
Patrick R. Foster’s Hudson Automobiles: An Illustrated History lives up to its title. If you are mainly interested in pictures, this is your book. The 128-page paperback is dominated by photographs, artist sketches and advertising, […]
Patrick Foster (2005) once lamented that he couldn’t find a publisher for a book on George Romney. “A typical rejection goes something like this: George Romney led an exemplary life, was honest in business, never […]
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