The Americans: The Most Iconic U.S. Cars and Their Era
by Blake Z. Rong
It is always interesting to see books on American cars written and produced in lands other than North America.
While this The Americans– Beautiful Machines is co-edited by an employee of the German publisher, its writer and co-editor is very much American, a graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts where he earned his MFA and now lives in NYC in a self-described “small apartment with my small cat.” Having paid his dues/served his apprenticeship as a freelance writer for publications such as Autoweek, Road & Track and Jalopnik, Blake Z. Rong has achieved his goal of being a full-time creative. His previous work for this same publisher is another Beautiful Machines title, The Era of the Elegant Sports Car and The Italians.
This 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air Impala page pair shows a typical opening spread; attractive photo and a few words.
This book is indeed a coffee table type, oversized (12 x 10.75″) and featuring fine photographs printed sufficiently large to let a viewer/reader see details—with the exception of those photos purposely shot and presented dark and moody on the page. Words are minimal with approximately 650 of them introducing each of the fifteen featured cars. Inserted randomly are just shy of a dozen somewhat more expansive essays pertaining to culture or history as indicated on the Table of Contents by the all caps and bold typeface.
Rong fulfills his writing assignment nicely even injecting it with touches of humor or irony that won’t be lost on an American reader although perhaps won’t be as apparent to readers in other lands. There’s no indication whatsoever whether Rong had any part selecting the vehicles or the culture topics or was simply given the list of what to write about. Overall the selection seems uneven and random; there are some production cars, some concept or purely show cars, a few are one of a kind and some are customized but not always or consistently identified as such. Nor are makers or manufacturers evenly or proportionally represented. And then there’s that word in the subtitle that has become so overused as to make this commentator cringe for iconic has now joined unique and classic in being broadly applied to practically everything!
Vehicles are grouped by decade but within a given decade are not necessarily in chronological order. In fact, for one decade the last car written about was built in the first year of the decade. Yet the vehicle it spawned had been presented nine chapters earlier. Not all decades have the same number of vehicles or culture features, as the Table of Contents also clearly shows.
One element of the book’s basic design presentation that your commentator heartily applauds is the use of a standardized statistics block for those items for each automobile. Such blocks are compact, easy to comprehend at a glance little charts saving the looker/reader from being forced to wade through paragraphs of ultra-dry text presenting that data.
This page pair of a third generation Thunderbird is representative of concluding pages complete with the Statistics block.
My review copy arrived without any of the usual information that accompanies such as the physical book has no price on it anywhere to be found. The first online search wasn’t helpful but another different search found a list pricing in US dollars and also other sales and pricing information. So best advice is shop around!
The publisher’s promotional material indicates it sees this book as “a tribute to the ingenuity and passion that have made American cars a symbol of freedom and adventure.” It does read and feel like a celebration of Yank tanks especially during the ‘50s and ‘60s decades, thus a suitable gift for a young budding car enthusiast or a favorite family member who appreciates cars but may not be deeply involved in the hobby.
Copyright 2025 Helen V Hutchings (speedreaders.info)
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