Taking Charge The Electric Automobile in America

by SCHIFFER, MICHAEL

• ISBN13: 9781588340764
• ISBN10: 1588340767
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-22
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books

Summary

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. InTaking 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.

Author Biography

Michael Brian Schiffer is professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson and the author of seven books, including The Portable Radio in American Life (1991).

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
A Spectacular Flop	1	(4)
And Then There was Light (and Power)	5	(16)
On Trolleys and Bicycles	21	(14)
A Technological Convergence	35	(14)
The Electric Automobile Goes to Market	49	(14)
Getting a Charge	63	(14)
The Wizard Comes to the Rescue	77	(14)
A Dark Age Descends	91	(18)
The Road to Revival	109	(16)
The Classic Age	125	(28)
Denouement	153	(22)
Prognosis for the Electric Car	175	(16)
Quotation Credits	191	(8)
Selected Bibliography	199	(20)
Index	219