Indie Auto
header-advert
  • Home
  • About
    • Introduction
    • Editor’s Notes
    • Story Ideas Bank
    • Why All The Data?
    • Fake Stuff
    • About Those Photos
    • Talk Legal To Me
    • Privacy Policy
  • All Our Features
    • Ad Nauseam
    • Bird Chatter
    • Calendar
    • Current Events
    • Data Dives
    • Design Notes
    • Drive-By Musings
    • Fake Designs
    • Gallery
    • Histories
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Links
    • Literature
    • Media Analysis
    • Multimedia
    • Our Sponsors
    • Photo Essays
    • Quotes
    • Random Shots
    • Satire
  • Look It Up
    • In Auto Paedia
    • By author
    • By automaker or brand
    • By time period
    • By topic
    • By vehicle type
  • Readings
    • General Reference
    • Specific Brands & Automakers
    • Auto Culture, Policy & Business Strategy
    • Bibliography
    • Where To Buy Your Books
    • Recently-Posted Readings
  • Links
    • Bibliography of Links
  • Contact
    • Emails & Newsletter
    • Rejected Comments
  • Donate
HomeAutomaker-Specific Readings

Automaker-Specific Readings

Readings

Patrick Foster’s Hudson book emphasized pictures and boosterism

August 14, 2026 Steve 3

(EXPANDED FROM 3/5/2021) 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 […]

Ward Packard
Readings

James Ward offers more nuanced take on Packard’s fall than other auto histories

July 23, 2026 Steve 36

(EXPANDED FROM 2/26/2024) James A. Ward’s Packard book, The Fall of the Packard Motor Car Company, is dwarfed by Automobile Quarterly’s epic tome edited by Beverly Rae Kimes (2002) as well as Stuart R. Blond’s […]

Readings

Thomas Bonsall’s Edsel book is nuanced but suffers from groupthink

March 17, 2026 Steve 15

(EXPANDED FROM 9/27/2021) Disaster in Dearborn: The Story of the Edsel is paradoxical. On the one hand, this is a serious history book. That’s the opposite of so many of the coffee table books that […]

Readings

Langworth’s Kaiser-Frazer book still represents gold standard of auto histories

January 27, 2026 Steve 8

(EXPANDED FROM 5/7/2021) I only needed to quickly double-check a fact when I reached for Richard Langworth’s book, Kaiser-Frazer: The Last Onslaught on Detroit. A few hours later I finally pulled myself away from it. […]

Patrick Foster's 2013 AMC book
Readings

Patrick Foster’s 2013 American Motors book is still sort-of the best of the bunch

September 30, 2025 Steve 3

(EXPANDED FROM 12/13/2021) In recent years a number of American Motors books have been published, but Patrick Foster’s 2013 history is still the best — sort of. Foster (2024) was a co-author with Tom Glatch […]

Langworth Studebaker
Readings

Richard Langworth’s Studebaker book is dated but mostly still the best

September 9, 2025 Steve 5

(EXPANDED FROM 4/13/2013) When I am trying to track down information about Studebaker, I am most likely to first reach for Richard M. Langworth’s book. The reason why it that his journalistic approach was refreshingly […]

Readings

Ed Cray’s ‘Chrome Colossus’ offers a masterful history of General Motors

August 25, 2025 Steve 2

(EXPANDED FROM 1/2/2021) Ed Cray’s history of General Motors is one of the better automotive books in my library. A big reason why is that Chrome Colossus: General Motors and its Times eschewed the usual […]

Kimes Packard
Readings

Could Beverly Rae Kimes’ Packard book be published today?

July 22, 2025 Steve 7

Why give visibility to a book that was last published almost a quarter century ago? There are apparently so few copies left of Beverly Rae Kimes’ Packard: A History of the Motor Car and the […]

Wright On A Clear Day
Readings

DeLorean’s book is still one of best critiques of General Motors

May 7, 2025 Steve 24

(EXPANDED FROM 4/1/2022) On A Clear Day You Can See General Motors ranks right up there with Brock Yates’ The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry (1983) in articulating where Detroit went wrong. Yet it should […]

Charles K. Hyde Chrysler
Readings

Charles K. Hyde wrote a useful but superficial history of the Chrysler Corp.

February 21, 2025 Steve 5

I am ambivalent about Charles K. Hyde’s book, Riding the Roller Coaster: A History of the Chrysler Corporation. The American automotive history field desperately needs more scholarly books, and Hyde is a relatively rare academic […]

Posts pagination

1 2 … 4 »
  • 1962 Ford Galaxie 500
    Did the 1960-64 big Ford sell so poorly because of cannibalization?
    October 16, 2026 37
  • 1969 Ford Thunderbird 4-door Landau
    Was 1969 the beginning of the end for the Ford Thunderbird four-door Landau?
    October 14, 2026 7
  • Is Jaguar smart to run away from its design heritage?
    October 8, 2026 21
  • AMC Pacer clay model
    Why does Joe Ligo’s PBS series sanewash AMC’s mid-70s recklessness?
    October 6, 2026 21
  • 2026 Ram pickups
    A pyrrhic regulatory rollback and how poorly the 1978 Matador coupe sold
    October 2, 2026 12
  • 1962 Chrysler 300
    Did the 1962-65 Chrysler 300 ‘dilute’ the letter series?
    September 29, 2026 12
  • 1968 Ford Mustang
    Three rules led to a stultifying level of conformity in 1960s U.S. car design
    September 24, 2026 12
  • Internet problems reminded me of U.S. automakers in the 1970s
    May 2, 2026 1
  • 1956 Buick hood scoop
    Readers brainstorm ideas for future Indie Auto stories
    October 14, 2022 146
Society of Automotive Historian award to Indie Auto

Recent Comments

  • kim in lanark on Did the 1960-64 big Ford sell so poorly because of cannibalization?
  • kim in lanark on Did the 1962-65 Chrysler 300 ‘dilute’ the letter series?
  • Scampman on Why does Joe Ligo’s PBS series sanewash AMC’s mid-70s recklessness?
  • Don on Did the 1962-65 Chrysler 300 ‘dilute’ the letter series?
  • Scampman on Did the 1960-64 big Ford sell so poorly because of cannibalization?
  • Scampman on Did the 1962-65 Chrysler 300 ‘dilute’ the letter series?
  • Scampman on Did the 1962-65 Chrysler 300 ‘dilute’ the letter series?
  • kim in lanark on Did the 1960-64 big Ford sell so poorly because of cannibalization?
  • CaptainMyCaptain on Did the 1962-65 Chrysler 300 ‘dilute’ the letter series?
  • Don on Did the 1960-64 big Ford sell so poorly because of cannibalization?
  • Scampman on Did the 1960-64 big Ford sell so poorly because of cannibalization?
  • Steve on Did the 1960-64 big Ford sell so poorly because of cannibalization?
  • Captain My Captain on Did the 1960-64 big Ford sell so poorly because of cannibalization?
  • Scampman on Did the 1960-64 big Ford sell so poorly because of cannibalization?
  • Steve on Did the 1960-64 big Ford sell so poorly because of cannibalization?

Archives

Categories

Tags

1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s American Motors Auto culture Auto history media Auto media Automotive News Automotive Views Business strategies Chevrolet Compact cars Curbside Classic Design Design excesses Dodge Electric vehicles Engineering Fake advertising Ford Ford Motor Co. Full-sized cars General Motors Journalism standards Luxury cars Management culture Marketing Mid-sized cars Parody Patrick R. Foster Plymouth Premium-priced cars Public policies Rambler Reader comments Richard M. Langworth Stellantis Studebaker
Follow Us
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feed
Search
Archives
Categories
Help keep the lights on
Quinault at night

Copyright © 2022 Olympia, Earth Media, LLC | All rights reserved