Dream Car tells the story of entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin’s fantastical 1970s-era Safety Vehicle-1 (SV1), audaciously launched during a tumultuous breakpoint in postwar history. The tale of the sexy-yet-safe SV1 reveals the influence of automobiles on ideas about the future, technology, entrepreneurship, risk, safety, showmanship, politics, sex, gender, business, and the state, as well as the history of the auto industry’s birth, decline, and rebirth.

Written as an “open road,” the book invites readers to travel a narrative arc that unfolds chronologically and thematically. Dream Car’s seven chapters have been structured so that they can be read in any order, determined by whichever theme each reader finds most interesting. The book also includes a musical playlist of car songs from the era and songs about the SV1 itself.

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Dream Car is the tale of entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin’s sporty, sexy Safety Vehicle-1, a legendary failure in automotive history yet one that reveals much about postwar North America’s economic, political, and cultural evolution.
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Preface
Playlist

Prologue: On Stage, the Four Seasons Restaurant, New York City, June 25, 1974: Malcolm Bricklin, Ritchard Hatfield, and Their Fantastic Car

Introduction: Industrial Modernity, Bricklin, and Industrial Postmodernity, 1890s–1974–2020s

1. The Future (Technology)
2. Entrepreneur (Archetype)
3. Risk (Safety)
4. Showman (Politician)
5. Sex (Gender)
6. Business (The State)
7. Demise (Rebirth)

Conclusion: Malcolm Bricklin and His SV1: From Industrial Modernity to Industrial Postmodernity

Epilogue: Tesla Factory, Fremont, California, August 2018 – Elon Musk, the Model 3, and “Production Hell”

Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Notes about Sources
Notes
Bibliography
List of Illustrations and Credits
Index

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“Innovative, engaging, and, like the car on which it focuses, eccentric in the best way, Dream Car convincingly puts Malcolm Bricklin’s SV1 at the pivot point of North American political economy in the 1970s. Anastakis expertly draws the reader through a narrative of utopian dreams and remunerative schemes gone awry, and he even provides a killer playlist for the journey.”

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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781487555818
Publisert
2024-04-05
Utgiver
University of Toronto Press
Vekt
1020 gr
Høyde
260 mm
Bredde
184 mm
Dybde
30 mm
Aldersnivå
U, P, 05, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
488

Forfatter

Biografisk notat

Dimitry Anastakis is the L.R. Wilson and R.J. Currie Chair in Canadian Business History in the Department of History and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.