Published in 1916, "The Romance of the Automobile Industry" is a 460-page book that reads like a lavishly illustrated advertisement for the automobile. Author James Rudd Doolittle presents a fervent and uncritical celebration of the automobile, extolling its virtues and ignoring its flaws. The book delves into technical details, fuel types, and manufacturing processes, reflecting the era's fascination with technological advancements. Doolittle's enthusiastic prose reveals a belief in the automobile's transformative power, impacting various aspects of society, including health, prosperity, and even eugenics. The book offers a unique glimpse into the early 20th-century perspective on the automobile and its societal impact.
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You’ve probably heard us talking about how we have written a book that will be coming out this fall. We are super excited to share more about that very soon. We’ve spent a lot of the last year in the research and writing process. And what became apparent very soon was that there were a lot of things that we weren’t going to be able to fit into the book, no matter how hard we tried.
So we put together a little bonus episode for you on one of the fascinating things we found that just didn’t make the final draft. It’s a book called The Romance of the Automobile Industry: Being the Story of Its Development—Its Contribution to Health and Prosperity—Its Influence on Eugenics—Its Effect on Personal Efficiency—and Its Service and Mission to Humanity as the Latest and Greatest Phase of Transportation.
Published in 1916, it’s essentially a 460-page ad, lavishly illustrated with pictures of bewhiskered white men and their inventions. And even after all the time we’ve spent thinking about cars, this book still had some surprises. (And yes, you read that right…he talks about eugenics. We’ll explain.)
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