An Automotive Book Review: The Life of the Automobile 

"JR1" (type35bugatti) 03/25/2016 at 10:42 • Filed to: Book Review

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This is a book review I did for a history class about Steven Parissien’s historical study of the Automobile. I rated it 4/5. Read below to see why.

Steven Parissien, ed. The Life of The Automobile. The Complete History of the Motor Car. Thomas Dunne Books. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2014. Pp. 437. $27.99+vii (Hardback book)

The historical study of the automobile is a topic area that often does not receive a large amount of scholarly work. Parissien’s novel on the life and the history of the automobile is an exception to this general rule. Most automotive books that look at the history of the automobile focus far more on a wide body of readers, they are geared towards enthusiasts not scholars attempting to study history. Yet, Parissien does not do this. Instead he looks at the history of the automobile from its earliest days. Starting with Karl Benz and the invention of the internal combustion engine, Parissien discusses the history of the automobile from the late 19 th century, through the 20 th century, and into modern times. In his historical study, he divides the life of the automobile into sixteen separate sections. These sections are the chapters of the book that discuss particular periods of importance in an automobiles history. In these sections one sees several parts of the book devoted particularly to the European market and more specifically several devoted to the British automotive industry. It is, in this area, I gained most of my useful knowledge for my own studies. In the chapter, Austerity Britain really zeros in on the British landscape of automotive affairs. Overall, Parissien is successful in providing a good source of information for one to receive an overview of the automotive landscape throughout history be it British, American, Japanese or of another nationality. This historical study this therefore a must read for anyone looking to dive deeper into the understanding of automotive history.

As previously stated, when one wants to research automotive history they are up to a difficult task. Unlike popular studies of history such as WWII or the Civil Rights Movement secondary and primary information are challenges to come by. Finding sources of the general history of the motor industry is not an easy task to accomplish. Instead for one to have an overall picture of the history of the motor industry one must study the individual history of certain automobiles. It is far easier to find historical studies of the Ford Mustang or Austin Mini that it is to find a historical study of automobiles. Understandably companies are not always willing to give out information on their business practices and the information they do give out is normally selective to strengthen the brand image or rerelease an old product. Yet sometimes some secondary information is able to find its way to the public without being to tampered with by marketing departments. Some of this secondary information that is released though is not easy to find. As with the 50 th anniversary of the Mustang just recently, most information about the automobile is found not in books but in magazines which are fragile and often thrown away by the owner due to their quantity and cheapness. Thankfully in recent history most of this information has been achieved on magazines personal websites but before the invention of the Internet editorials on history are far harder to come by. Primary sources on the history of automobiles are not the easiest to find either. Companies such as Duesenberg have long since been bankrupt and the documents of business practices were considered decomposable when the company was liquidated. Furthermore as Parissien states as well, primary sources can be very inconsistent. Some information would even be purposefully destroyed because the companies believed it could hurt their overall brand image and marketing of products. Therefore, the historiography of automobiles is not exactly the easiest area to research. To be successful, the historian must be creative and look at evidence not only from company’s records but also from advertisements, magazine reviews, and personal stories. Parissien has done an excellent job of complying primary and secondary sources in his work.

The style of writing that Parissien uses in his historical study is more of a commentary than an overall argument. Yet, as with everything in life, there is an underlying argument of the novel that is present throughout. Parissien’s argument can be summed up as pioneering men and their ideas, not the automobile, changed the world we live in today. This argument is best illustrated at the start of Parissien’s book in the first chapter titled, Pioneers. Here the reader sees an early glimpse of the author’s main focus throughout the novel. Instead of looking at how the automobile has personally impacted people with interviews and stories, Parissien takes a top down approach when describing the automobile by successfully talking about the men who made cars and their ideas. When considering the British automotive industry, Parissien looks at figures such as Sir Henry Royce, Sir John Black, William Morris, and Herbert Austin. Parissien argues that these men were the influential leaders that shaped Britain and their automobiles that changed the company were merely the tool they used to shape it, much like an artist shaping their painting with a brush. In his arguments on the history of the British automotive world, one can clearly see he thought of the British automotive giants as piety individuals. It was ultimately the pettiness of the individual that ultimately lead to the failure of the company. One of Parissien’s examples of this pettiness was in 1947 when the chairman of Austin stated, “With whom are we going to cooperate – the shop stewards? The shop stewards are communist.” !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Here the reader can see that Parissien is describing protests and that the leadership of the automotive companies appeared to have no patients and no time to deal with protests. He notes how it would be decisions such as that, that would ultimately disrupt and derail the British automotive industry. Throughout the historical study, one can see Parissien credits the progress or lack of progress in the automotive world with the decisions of the individuals who lead the company and Parissien does a decent job of supporting his arguments with facts.

Dr. Steven Parissien is the Director of Compton Verney museum in Warwickshire, England. He is also a visiting fellow at several notable universities in England as well. Parissien received both his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Oxford University. He has written nine different historical studies most of them are focused on architecture and cultural history. To date The Life of The Automobile. The Complete History of the Motor Car is Parissien’s only historical novel on the automobile. Therefore, one might believe his credentials would be called into question on the subject and these assumptions would not be invalid. To be concerned about the author’s credentials is not a misguided concern. He does not carry a vast knowledge of the automobile and this concern is most obvious when one looks at his understanding of the American automotive environment. His facts are sometimes misinformed or they do not successfully describe the situation in its entirety. An example of this is found on page 210 when Parissien states, “It is hardly a surprise that only five Silver Arrows were sold – nor that the disaster would take Studebaker down with it.” !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! It is difficult to see how Parissien made this correlation. It is obvious to anyone who understands the history of Studebaker that five little Pierce Arrows were not what hurt Studebaker during the depression but instead it was the acquisition and loss of the White Motor Company that truly harmed the firm. Yet, even with faults such as this, the writing of Parissien is still suitable. His history of the British motor industry seems not to be effected by the same factual errors as his American history is. One can see this is due to his larger background of British history.

Parissien looks at a wide variety of sources and evidence to make his overall argument in his historical study. When reviewing Parissien’s sources he divided his studies into seven separate sub categories. The first category is titled General and in the category the reader sees a wide variety of sources from different time periods relating to the history of the automobile. The oldest of his general dates from 1962 and the most modern of his general sources was published in 2009. The second category that Parissien has is Design. The design section of his studies is one of his shorter areas of research and the area consists of work the early seventies all the way through 2007. His lack of focus on the pre-war automobiles is more obvious in his historical study. Raymond Loewy’s work is one of Parissien’s more notable sources in design. Lowey was a leading designer in the automotive industry. Parissien’s third category titled Motoring, focuses on the culture of the automobile throughout history. This is also one of Parissien’s more brief areas of study but nevertheless he does a good job of integrating the culture of the automobile into his work. The fourth category is titled Motor City and this is where a large base of Parissien’s knowledge of The Big Three in Detroit came from. One of the noticeable absences in this area is The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War. This historical study is an excellent secondary source that covers the American war effort a very significant part of the automotive history in the United States. The next category that Parissien discusses is fuels. This work is all far more recent and discusses what the future of the automobile might look like. It is also the shortest source area Parissien has however, that is appropriate for amount of information that has been written about it. The sixth section that Parissien has is also the second longest amount of sources he uses. It talks about the people of the automotive industry and because it is the second largest one can clearly see it is where he got a majority of his argument from that the people changed the world using their automotive companies as the tools. The earliest piece of work in this section is from 1937 and the most modern is from 2006. Finally the last section in Parissien’s is titled marques and models. Here one can see his study of individual influential models that changed the history of companies. Some of those models include the Citroën DS and Volkswagen Beetle. Therefore one can see Parissien overall has an extensive amount of source he used to write his historical study of automobiles, however this reviewer cannot help but notice a few absences that might have been helpful in his studies. Reviews from popular motoring magazines and government documents could have been primary sources Parissien utilized to further his own research yet none of that is present in his collection of sources.

The massive amount of resources is one of the main things that contributes to the authors overall success of the historical study. Yet, with a wide variety of sources, the author as previously stated did make factual errors throughout that could have been easily remedied with a little more research. Even with those errors however the book still has a great deal of merit. It presents the reader with a wide amount of knowledge on the life of the automobile. A study of which has not been done in some time. Therefore to the inexperienced reader looking for background on the subject or an entertaining read this is a wonderful book to look at. But one must be advised to use caution. The novel has the potential to lead the reader astray if they are not careful in a few key areas. This reviewer made sure to fact check a few things regarding the British automotive industry before believing it is actual fact. With that note of caution though, it must be stated that this book is still a great overall read to deep ones feet into the history of the automobile. Furthermore, the wide variety of sources listed in the back of the historical study provides a great opportunity for further reading on the subject matter.

Rating: 4/5

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!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Steven Parissien, The Life of the Automobile: The Complete History of the Motor Car (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2014) 143

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Ibid 210

* Sorry if it is a little dry everyone. This was an academic piece I wrote for a class. Nevertheless I hope you enjoyed it!

wunderwagen wants a longer roof > JR1 03/25/2016 at 11:06

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5/5 would read, I thought the review was well done. Excuse me while I go find this at the library.

JR1 > wunderwagen wants a longer roof 03/25/2016 at 14:30

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It's only a few bucks on Amazon if you want to own it

wunderwagen wants a longer roof > JR1 03/25/2016 at 14:38

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Actually have it reserved at my library already, I was surprised they had it since there are only two branches.

JR1 > wunderwagen wants a longer roof 03/25/2016 at 14:45

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Well hopefully you enjoy it. Not a bad read and you definitely learn a lot