CAR the definitive visual history of the Automobile new edition

The concept of personal transportation with its own mobile power source took off with Karl Benz’s motorwagen in 1885. Within a generation, the car had arrived and could take you anywhere. When Henry Ford brought his “Tin Lizzie” to the masses in 1908, America’s automobile industry had come of age.

In the shadow of the Great Depression, thrifty models and the advent of the “people’s car” made motoring ever more egalitarian. Streamlining and teardrops were all the rage, newspapers hailed the superheroes who smashed speed records, and sports and luxury cars reached new peaks of power and style.