The Car
The Rise and Fall of the Machine That Made the Modern World
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The Car
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Narrated by:
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Jim Seybert
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By:
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Bryan Appleyard
About this listen
A spirited, insightful exploration of our favorite machine and its cultural impact on society over the past 150 years.
More than any other technology, cars have transformed American popular culture. Cars have created vast wealth as well as novel dreams of freedom and mobility. They have transformed our sense of distance and made the world infinitely more available to our eyes and our imaginations. They have inspired cinema, music, and literature; they have, by their need for roads, bridges, filling stations, huge factories, and global supply chains, reengineered the world. Almost everything we now need, want, imagine, or aspire to assumes the existence of cars in all their limitless power and their complex systems of meanings.
This book celebrates the immense drama and beauty of the car, of the genius embodied in the Ford Model T, of the glory of the brilliant-red Mercedes Benz S-Class made by workers for Nelson Mandela on his release from prison, of Kanye West's "chopped" Maybach, of the salvation of the Volkswagen Beetle by Major Ivan Hirst, of Elvis Presley's 100 Cadillacs, of the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost and the BMC Mini, and even of that harbinger of the end—the Tesla Model S and its creator Elon Musk.
As the age of the car as we know it comes to an end, Bryan Appleyard's brilliantly insightful book tells the story of the rise and fall of the incredible machine that made the modern world what it is today.
©2022 Bryan Appleyard (P)2022 Spectrum AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
Sometimes achieving big things requires the ability to think small. This simple concept was the driving force that propelled the Volkswagen Beetle to become an avatar of American-style freedom, a household brand, and a global icon. The VW Bug inspired the ad men of Madison Avenue, beguiled Woodstock Nation, and has recently been re-imagined for the hipster generation. And while today it is surely one of the most recognizable cars in the world, few of us know the compelling details of this car’s story.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
book is a history lesson
- By Michael miller on 10-02-12
By: Andrea Hiott
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Car Wars
- The Rise, the Fall, and the Resurgence of the Electric Car
- By: John Fialka
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
The resurgence of the electric car in modern life is a tale of adventurers, men and women who bucked the complete dominance of the fossil-fueled car to seek something cleaner, simpler and cheaper. Award-winning former Wall Street Journal reporter John Fialka documents the early days of the electric car, from the MIT/Caltech race between prototypes in the summer of 1968 to the 1987 victory of the Sunraycer in the world's first race featuring solar-powered cars.
By: John Fialka
-
A Brief History of Motion
- From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next
- By: Tom Standage
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
Tom Standage's fleet-footed and surprising global histories have delighted fans and sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Now, he returns with a provocative account of an overlooked form of technology - personal transportation - and explores how it has shaped societies and cultures over millennia. Beginning around 3,500 BCE with the wheel - a device that didn't catch on until a couple thousand years after its invention - Standage zips through the eras of horsepower, trains, and bicycles, revealing how each successive mode of transit embedded itself in the world we live in.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great listen
- By CKerb on 11-09-21
By: Tom Standage
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I Invented the Modern Age
- The Rise of Henry Ford and the Most Important Car Ever Made
- By: Richard Snow
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 729
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 632
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 627
In many ways, Henry Ford's story is well-known; in many more ways, it is not. Richard Snow masterfully weaves together a fascinating narrative of Ford's rise to fame through his greatest invention, the Model T. A highly pleasurable listen, filled with scenes and incidents from Ford's life, I Invented the Modern Age shows Richard Snow at the height of his powers as a popular historian and reclaims from history Henry Ford, the remarkable man who, indeed, invented the modern world as we know it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Complicated Man
- By Jean on 11-23-13
By: Richard Snow
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The Yugo
- The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History
- By: Jason Vuic
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 545
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 351
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 356
Six months after its American introduction in 1985, the Yugo was a punch line; within a year, it was a staple of late-night comedy. By 2000, NPR's Car Talk declared it "the worst car of the millennium." And for most Americans that's where the story begins and ends. Hardly. The short, unhappy life of the car, the men who built it, the men who imported it, and the decade that embraced and discarded it is rollicking and astounding, and it is one of the greatest untold business-cum-morality tales of the 1980s.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Better Than The Car!
- By Chris Reich on 08-25-10
By: Jason Vuic
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Made in America
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: William Roberts
- Length: 18 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,541
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,274
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,273
In Made in America, Bryson de-mythologizes his native land, explaining how a dusty hamlet with neither woods nor holly became Hollywood, how the Wild West wasn't won, why Americans say 'lootenant' and 'Toosday', how Americans were eating junk food long before the word itself was cooked up, as well as exposing the true origins of the G-string, the original $64,000 question, and Dr Kellogg of cornflakes fame.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Bryson Not Reading Makes For a Rare Fail
- By John on 02-28-14
By: Bill Bryson
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The Top Gear Story
- By: Martin Roach
- Narrated by: Jerome Pride
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 67
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 60
This is the full story of the unstoppable rise of Clarkson, Hammond, May and The Stig – and how they have transformed an ordinary programme about cars into one of the most famous and best-loved TV programmes of the 21st century. Reaching a peak in the 1990s thanks to presenter Jeremy Clarkson, the original series then faced the axe in 2001 – but Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman successfully pitched a new format to BBC bosses and Top Gear returned to become the irreverent, funny and often controversial show we now know and love.
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1 out of 5 stars
-
I wish I had bought something else
- By Thomas on 03-12-12
By: Martin Roach
-
The Big Roads
- The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways
- By: Earl Swift
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 172
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 155
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 153
From author Earl Swift comes the surprising history of the U.S. interstate system, a fascinating route through the dreams, discoveries, and protests that shaped these mighty roads.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Lessons from The Big Roads
- By Joshua Kim on 05-06-12
By: Earl Swift
-
Autonomy
- The Quest to Build the Driverless Car—and How It Will Reshape Our World
- By: Lawrence D. Burns, Christopher Shulgan
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 272
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 240
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 239
In Autonomy, former GM executive and current advisor to the Google Self-Driving Car project Lawrence Burns offers a sweeping history of the race to make the driverless car a reality. In the past decade, Silicon Valley companies like Google, Tesla and Uber have positioned themselves to revolutionize the way we move around by developing driverless vehicles while traditional auto companies like General Motors, Ford, and Daimler have been fighting back by partnering by with new tech start-ups.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Easy listen, non-technical perspective
- By James S. on 09-14-18
By: Lawrence D. Burns, and others
-
Driving Honda
- Inside the World’s Most Innovative Car Company
- By: Jeffrey Rothfeder
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
For decades there have been two iconic Japanese auto companies. One has been endlessly studied and written about. The other has been generally underappreciated and misunderstood. Until now. Since its birth as a motorcycle company in 1949, Honda has steadily grown into the world’s fifth largest automaker and top engine manufacturer, as well as one of the most beloved, most profitable, and most consistently innovative multinational corporations.
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3 out of 5 stars
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it was ok.
- By chris p on 11-16-18
-
Car Guys vs. Bean Counters
- The Battle for the Soul of American Business
- By: Bob Lutz
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 258
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 221
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 213
In 2001, General Motors hired Bob Lutz out of retirement with a mandate to save the company by making great cars again. He launched a war against penny pinching, office politics, turf wars, and risk avoidance. After declaring bankruptcy during the recession of 2008, GM is back on track thanks to its embrace of Lutz's philosophy. When Lutz got into the auto business in the early sixties, CEOs knew that if you captured the public's imagination with great cars, the money would follow.
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1 out of 5 stars
-
Opinionated and one-sided
- By Michael Parks on 06-23-11
By: Bob Lutz
-
Faster, Higher, Farther
- The Volkswagen Scandal
- By: Jack Ewing
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 232
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 191
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 193
A shocking exposé of Volkswagen's fraud by the New York Times reporter who covered the scandal. In mid-2015 Volkswagen proudly reached its goal of surpassing Toyota as the world's largest automaker. A few months later, the EPA disclosed that Volkswagen had installed software in 11 million cars that deceived emissions-testing mechanisms. By early 2017 VW had settled with American regulators and car owners for $20 billion, with additional lawsuits still looming.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent recap of VW, its structure and culture
- By Northern IN Mark on 05-27-17
By: Jack Ewing
-
Full Steam Ahead
- How the Railways Made Britain
- By: Peter Ginn, Ruth Goodman
- Narrated by: Peter Ginn, Ruth Goodman
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
The Age of Railways was an era of extraordinary change which utterly transformed every aspect of British life - from trade and transportation to health and recreation. Full Steam Ahead reveals how the world we live in today was entirely shaped by the rail network, charting the glorious evolution of rail transportation and how it left its mark on every aspect of life, landscape and culture. Peter Ginn and Ruth Goodman brilliantly bring this revolution to life in their trademark style, which engages and captivates.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
,,,,Hi,,,, Research,,
- By Richard Jones on 10-10-24
By: Peter Ginn, and others
-
Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 367
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 314
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 312
Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy paints an epic picture of change in an intimate way by telling the stories of the tools, people, and ideas that had far-reaching consequences for all of us. From the plough to artificial intelligence, from Gillette's disposable razor to IKEA's Billy bookcase, best-selling author and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford recounts each invention's own curious, surprising, and memorable story.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thought provoking
- By Paul Norris on 09-10-17
By: Tim Harford
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What listeners say about The Car
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- andrew bengtson
- 08-22-23
Enaging
Great for car lovers. Great Narration and pacing. Fun details and history. Cars as an idea.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- LD
- 03-06-24
Wide-ranging look at cars
Excellent book. Wide-ranging, it covers the full breadth of automotive history and even looks into the future. I knew some of the stories, but he added new details and reflected on them in fresh ways.
The narrator has an appealing voice, but he frequently changed words for no apparent reason. This should have been picked up by their editors.
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