Note about reserve readings:
The required readings on reserve in the Rockefeller Library are denoted by an *.
Those denoted by ** are on reserve and recommended.
1a. Introduction and Course Objectives
1b. Historical Background
Clay McShane, Down the Asphalt Path , chaps. 1-4
James Flink, The Automobile Age, chap. 1
Suggested:
**Kenneth Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier, chaps. 2, 6
John Stilgoe, Metropolitan Corridor
2. The Introduction of the Automobile
Flink, The Automobile Age, chaps. 2-4
McShane, Down the Asphalt Path, chaps. 6-7
William Faulkner, The Reivers, chaps. i-v
Suggested:
James Flink, America Adopts the Automobile
Joseph Interrante, "You Can't Go to Town in a Bathtub: Automobile Movement and the Reorganization of Rural American Space, 1900-1930," Radical History Review (Fall, 1979)
*David Macaulay, The Way Things Work
Blaine Brownell, "A Symbol of Modernity: Attitudes Toward the Automobile in Southern Cities in the 1920s," American Quarterly (March, 1972)
J. Stanley Lemons, "The Automobile Comes to Rhode Island," Rhode Island History (August, 1994)
3. Henry Ford, Alfred Sloan, and the Mass-produced Car
Flink, The Automobile Age, chaps. 5, 6,11,12
*Alfred Sloan, My Years with General Motors, chaps. 1, 2, 10
Suggested:
Robert Lacey, Ford: The Men and the Machine
Donald Finlay Davis, Conspicuous Production
4. The Assembly Line and the Automobile Factory
Flink, The Automobile Age, chap. 7
*Robert Gordon and Patrick Malone, The Texture of Industry: An Archaeological View of the Industrialization of North America, pp. 329-339, 373-380,
386-391
"The Demon Lover - The Making," in *Studs Terkel, Working
Movie: Factory scenes in Modern Times (in class)
Suggested:
David Hounshell, From the American System to Mass Production
Harvey Swados, On the Line
Ben Hamper, Rivethead
Lindy Biggs, The Rational Factory
Charles Hyde, Detroit: An Industrial History Guide
"Michigan Made," special issue of Michigan History (March/April, 1996)
5a. Long Weekend Break
5b. Women and Automobiles (Lecture by Morgan Grefe)
McShane, Down the Asphalt Path: The Automobile and the American City, chap. 8
Flink, The Automobile Age, chap. 9
Suggested:
*Virginia Scharff, Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the Motor
Age
The Woman and the Ford (Ford Motor Company Brochure)
6. Design and Marketing
Flink, The Automobile Age, pp. 281-283
*Sloan, My Years with General Motors, chaps 13, 15
*Roland Marchand, Advertising the American Dream, Intro, pp.127-132,
156-160
*Randall Rothenberg, Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of
an Advertising Campaign, chaps. 1, 5
Suggested:
C. Edson Armi, The Art of American Car Design
David Gartman, Auto Opium
Todd Gitlin, "Car Commercials and Miami Vice: We Build Excitement," in Todd Gitlin, ed., Watching Television
David L. Lewis and Bill Rauhauser, The Car and the Camera
Vincent Caruso, Chrysler
MID-TERM (TAKE HOME ESSAY) EXAM AT THE END OF THE SIXTH WEEK: DUE IN CLASS ON MONDAY
7. City and Suburb
McShane, Down the Asphalt Path, chap. 10
Flink, The Automobile Age, chap. 8
**Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier, chaps. 9-10, 13, 15
*The Costs of Suburban Sprawl and Urban Decay in Rhode Island: Executive Summary
Suggested:
*Robert Fishman, Bourgeois Utopias
Robert Fishman, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century
LeCorbusier, Radiant City
Mark Foster, From Streetcar to Superhighway: American City Planners and Urban Transportation, 1900-1940
Mike Davis, City of Quartz
Stanford Anderson, ed., On Streets
Martin Wachs and Margaret Crawford, eds., The Car and the City
8. Roadside Architecture and Strip Development
Flink, The Automobile Age, chap. 10
**Chester Liebs, Main Street to Miracle Mile, chaps. on "Space" and "Image"
Suggested:
Jan Jennings, ed., Roadside America
Robert Venturi, et al, Learning From Las Vegas
Jim Heiman and Rip Georges, California Crazy
Matthew Roth, Southern California Car Culture Landmarks - AAA map
John Jakle, The Motel in America
Warren Belasco, Americans on the Road: From Autocamp to Motel
Richard Horwitz, The Strip
Alan Hess, Googie
Alan Hess, Viva Las Vegas
John Margolies, Pump and Circumstance
Richard Gutman, American Diner: Then and Now
Bernd Polster and Phil Patton, Highway: America’s Endless Dream
Karal Ann Marling, The Colossus of Roads: Myth and Symbol Along the American Highway
9a. Shopping Centers, Malls, and Parking Garages
**Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier, chap. 14
"The Park at Post Office Square," in *Jay Farbstein and Richard Wener, Rebuilding Cities
Suggested:
Richard Longstreth, City Center to Regional Mall
9b. Edge Cities
**Joel Garreau, Edge City, chaps. 1-5
Suggested:
*Fishman, Bourgeois Utopias, chap. 7
Peter Rowe, Making a Middle Landscape
SPRING RECESS
10. Social Change and Popular Culture (Lecture by Alex Russo)
Flink, The Automobile Age, chap. 9
*Robert and Helen Lynd, Middletown, Chap. XVIII
**Tom Wolfe, Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, chaps. 2, 6, 8
Movie: American Graffitti
Suggested:
*E. L. Widmer, "The Automobile, Rock and Roll, and Democracy," in Jennings, ed., Roadside America
David L. Lewis, ed. The Automobile and American Culture
Jan Brunvand, The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & their Meaning
Cynthia Dettelbach, In the Driver's Seat: The Automobile in American Culture
Robert Post, High Performance: The Culture and Technology of Drag Racing, 1950-1990
J. Patrick Wright (and John DeLorean), On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors
Gerald Silk, The Automobile and Culture
Bill Morris, Motor City
Kevin Jon Boyle, Rear View Mirror: Automobile Images and American Identities
11. Safety, Environmental Concerns, and Foreign Competition
Flink, The Automobile Age, chaps. 15, 17, 20
McShane, Down the Asphalt Path, chap. 9
*David Halberstam, The Reckoning, chaps. 3, 17, 30.
*Brock Yates, The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry, chap. VI
Suggested:
*Ralph Nader, Unsafe At Any Speed
Joel Eastman, Styling vs. Safety: The American Automobile Industry and the Development of Automotive Safety, 1900-1966
Jack Doyle, Taken For a Ride: Detroit’s Big Three and the Politics of Pollution
Alan Altshuler and Daniel Roos, eds., The Future of the Automobile
Jonathan Mantle, Car Wars
12. Highways, Interchanges, and Bridges (Guest Lecturer, Edward Connors)
Flink, The Automobile Age, chap. 19
**Robert Caro, The Power Broker, 1-21, 515-525, 837-958
*Matthew Roth and Bruce Clouette, Historic Highway Bridges of Rhode Island, pp. 6-13, 49-54, 57, 60-71
Suggested:
*Phil Patton, Open Road
*Our Nation’s Highways: Selected Facts and Figures (FHA)
Mark Rose, Interstate: Express Highway Politics, 1941-1956
Bruce Seeley, Building the American Highway System
Bruce Radde, The Merritt Parkway
David Brodsly, L. A. Freeway
Tom Lewis, Divided Highways
William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways
Matthew Roth, "Mulholland Highway and the Engineering Culture of Los Angeles in the 1920s," Technology and Culture (July, 1999)
TERM PAPERS ARE DUE IN CLASS AT THE SECOND MEETING OF WEEK 13.
13a. Great Bridges and Tunnels for the Automobile
*David Jacobs and Anthony Neville, Bridges, Canals, and Tunnels, pp. 105, 108-128, 132-133, 136-141
*Henry Petroski, Engineers of Dreams, chap. V
Suggested:
Plowden, Bridges: The Spans of North America
Eric DeLony, Landmark American Bridges
13b. Conclusion (TERM PAPERS DUE)
FINAL EXAMINATION: 9AM, Friday, May 18
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