Get Free Shipping on orders over $89
Taking Charge : The Electric Automobile in America - Michael Schiffer

Taking Charge

The Electric Automobile in America

By: Michael Schiffer

Paperback | 22 June 2010 | Edition Number 2

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $48.25

$46.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $11.69 with

 or 

Ships in 5 to 7 business days

In Taking Charge, Schiffer explains how cultural factors influenced the rise of "gas-guzzling" mobiles and argue that the time for electric cars has arrived.

The tumultuous history of inventors and corporations who have tried to bring the electric car to the market.

Amazingly, in 1900 28 percent of all cars were electric. By 1920 the electric car had all but vanished and gas-powered cars dominated the market. In Taking Charge, Schiffer deftly explores how cultural factors, not technological ones, explain the rise of gas-guzzling cars. Schiffer brings the history of the electric car into the present, arguing that despite the Detroit Big Three's reluctance to make electric cars, their time has finally arrived.
Industry Reviews
"A cracking good read."-Technology and Culture

"The car of the future turns out to be the car of the past, according to Schiffer in this peppy look at the electric car's Edwardian infancy."-Kirkus Reviews

"Much more than a historical overview, Schiffer puts his anthropology training to good effect in the text, livening his recitation with fascinating details about contemporary personalities and cultural settings. His volume provides the best insight to date of how and why electric vehicles faltered [in the past], and why that result was due more to culture than technology."-Environment

"Part car-nut's history, part social history, this is a fine resource for popular culture and American Studies collections."-Booklist

More in Social & Cultural History

A World Appears : A Journey Into Consciousness - Michael Pollan

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
Dark Emu : Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture - Bruce Pascoe
Abandoned Women : Scottish Convicts Exiled Beyond the Seas - Lucy Frost
The Breath of the Gods : The History and Future of the Wind - Simon Winchester
The Dawn of Everything : A New History of Humanity - David Graeber
How to Move a Zoo : The incredible true story - Kate Simpson

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
Goliath's Curse : The History and Future of Societal Collapse - Luke Kemp
Entitled : The Rise and Fall of the House of York - Andrew Lownie

RRP $37.99

$19.99

47%
OFF
The Origins of Totalitarianism : Penguin Modern Classics - Hannah Arendt
Raven Mother : War, Family and Inheritance: a Memoir - Jane Messer
The Library That Made Me : 200 years of the State Library of NSW - Richard Neville
The Town Like No Other : A Story of Broken Hill - Robert McLean

RRP $32.99

$28.75

13%
OFF
Trip to the Moon : Understanding the True Power Of Story - John Yorke
Bondi Terror : The tragedy, the courage, the aftermath - Sharri Markson