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HomeAutomaker-Specific Readings

Automaker-Specific Readings

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 23

(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 […]

Readings

Foster and Glatch’s AMC book is splashy but suffers from pom-pom waving

November 18, 2024 Steve 5

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. […]

Ward Packard
Readings

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

February 26, 2024 Steve 35

(EXPANDED FROM 12/15/2022) 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 […]

Posts pagination

1 2 … 4 »
  • 1954 Chevrolet was beginning of the end for GM’s brand hierarchy
    April 21, 2026 17
  • 1980 Pontiac Phoenix 5-door hatch
    Bigger didn’t prove to be better for General Motors in late-70s and 80s
    April 17, 2026 39
  • 1963 Ford Galaxie
    Might Detroit have embraced front-wheel drive earlier if McNamara had stayed at Ford?
    April 16, 2026 7
  • Cheap dealer car
    How much do Trump policies have to hurt auto industry before it supports Dems?
    April 14, 2026 19
  • 1975 Ford Thunderbird
    Ford design in the 1970s was a real step down from the previous decade
    April 10, 2026 24
  • 1981 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
    The sad story about buying a 1981 Monte Carlo right out of college
    April 9, 2026 2
  • Why the 1968-69 Javelin was not Richard Teague’s best AMC sporty coupe
    April 6, 2026 9
  • Mitsubishi dealer in Spokane
    Indie Auto is moving — although you may barely notice
    April 8, 2026 4
  • 1956 Buick hood scoop
    Readers brainstorm ideas for future Indie Auto stories
    October 14, 2022 136
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