Archive for Items Categorized 'History', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

Fordlândia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City

by Greg Grandin

There are books about the T, the A, ’32s, Ford in competition, Henry and Edsel, Ford vs Ferrari—it truly is a very long list of books that parse out and relate various aspects of Ford. And now there’s one about Ford City!

Racing in the Rain: My Years with Brilliant Drivers, Legendary Sports Cars, and a Dedicated Team

Two books about racing in the rain—they couldn’t be more alike in one respect, yet completely different in others.

Motion Performance: Tales of a Muscle Car Builder

by Martyn L Schorr

Many of the already-in-print “muscle” books mention a Motion or Baldwin-Motion car, but this boo is the only one exclusively devoted to the subject. And I’ll venture it might be the only one devoted exclusively to Joel Rosen’s tuning prowess.

Enrico Nardi, A Fast Life

by Dino Brunori, Andrea Curami

Enrico Nardi would probably be amused at the attention he continues to receive some 43 years after his death in 1966. More at home in the shop than in social situations, money, fame, or gold watches did not impress him much.

The Art of the Engineer

by Ken Baynes and Francis Pugh

Nothing as powerful as a revolution happens without a plan. A “plan” in the most literal sense is what made the Industrial Revolution possible. In the context of this book it refers to the scientific illustrations that precede the actual building of things.

100 Years of Brooklands: The Birthplace of British Motorsport & Aviation

by Allan Winn and John Pulford

Commissioned by the Brooklands Museum on the occasion of the famed circuit’s centenary in 2007, this book tells its story mainly in photos divided into three main sections by type of motivation—cars, motorcycles, and aircraft

Monte Carlo Rally: The Golden Age, 1911–1980

by Graham Robson

Robson loves the Monte! Trained as an automobile engineer he caught the bug after watching his first RAC rally in 1953 and became a driver himself for various works teams, and was manager of another before moving into rally journalism.

La Carrera Panamericana: “The World’s Greatest Road Race!”

by Johnny Tipler

In 2006 and 2007 Tipler accompanied the Panam as a journalist, trading rides in the press van for the occasional hitch in a service crew vehicle, which put him about as close to the action as you can get short of participating yourself.

Races, Faces, Places: The Motor Racing Photography of Michael Cooper

by Paul Parker

This is the sort of book you pick up in an idle moment—and hours later wonder where the day has gone. Both in terms of photographic technique and storytelling there is much, much to discover here.

Ford in the Service of America: Mass Production for the Military during the World Wars

Mass Production for the Military during the World Wars

by Timothy J O’Callaghan

WWII lies two-thirds of a century in the past. It must be incomprehensible to those not alive then, that there was a time when virtually all the resources of our domestic life were directed towards a single goal; victory over clearly identified enemies.

The Horten Brothers and Their All-Wing Aircraft

by David Myhra

WWII left the world with a number of very technologically advanced German twin-jet aircraft designs. The young Hortons were right there and made a mighty contribution.

Yesterday We Were in America: Alcock and Brown, First to Fly the Atlantic Non-stop

by Brendan Lynch

“Yesterday We Were in America!” Imagine saying that at a cocktail party—in 1919. This is the phrase pilot Alcock kept repeating to the crew of the Marconi radio station near which he had landed, and who simply would not believe him!