From Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Ingrassia comes a narrative of America like no other: a cultural history that explores how cars have both propelled and reflected the national experience—from the Model T to the Prius.America was made manifest by its cars. From the assembly lines of Henry Ford to the open roads of Route 66 and Jack Kerouac, America’s history is a vehicular history—an idea brought brilliantly to life in this major work by the acclaimed author of Crash Course: The American Automobile Industry’s Road from Glory to Disaster. One of the nation’s most eloquent and impassioned car nuts, Paul Ingrassia offers a wondrous epic in fifteen automobiles, including the VW Beetle, the Chevy Corvair, Robert McNamara and Lee Iacocca’s Mustang, the Pontiac GTO, Honda’s Accord, the BMW 3 Series, and the Jeep, among others. Through them, the author shows us much more than the car’s ability to exhibit the particularly American tension between the lure of freedom and the obligations of utility; he takes us through the rise of American manufacturing, the suburbanization of the country, the birth of the Hippy and the Yuppy, the emancipation of women, and so much more, including the car’s unintended consequences: trial lawyers, energy crises, and pollution. Narrative history of the highest caliber, Engines of Change is an entirely edifying new way to look at the American story.

By the early 1960s, Ford Motor Company, built to bring automobile transportation to the masses, was falling behind. Baby boomers were taking to the roads in droves, looking for speed not safety, style not comfort, and Ford didn’t offer what these young drivers wanted. Meanwhile, Enzo Ferrari lorded over the European racing scene, crafting beautiful, fast sports cars that epitomized style. Baime tells the remarkable story of how Henry Ford II, with the help of a young visionary named Lee Iacocca and a former racing champion turned engineer named Carroll Shelby, concocted a scheme to reinvent the Ford company. They would enter the high-stakes world of European car racing, where an adventurous few threw safety and sanity to the wind. They would design, build, and race a car that could beat Ferrari at his own game, at the most prestigious and dangerous race in the world, the 24 Hours of LeMans. Go Like Hell transports readers to a golden era in racing when Ford’s innovative strategy led to victories on the track and renewed respect for the American automobile.

The long-awaited authorized biography of Carroll Shelby, written with his full collaboration, is a remarkable account of an action-packed life. Though Shelby gained worldwide fame in the 1960s with Cobras and Ford GT40s, he has achieved much more in a long and varied career, both around cars and in other spheres. It is all recorded here in superb detail, from childhood to life today as a busy 86-year-old who still sets himself a punishing schedule of business and actively seeks further goals. Packed with insight and fresh information gleaned from dozens of interviews, this outstanding biography will be essential reading for all car enthusiasts.

"I will cut to the chase and give you the Official Ringing Endorsement: That book is the best car book I've read this year. It's wonderfully assembled and passionately written, and it takes a refreshingly new angle on a much-discussed subject. Buy it. (Disclosure: I receive no financial benefit from sales of this book.) In addition to documenting the history and personalities behind one of America's most wonderful automobiles, it's just plain fun to flip through." - Autos.msn.com  In the early 1960s Carroll Shelby, a Texas chicken farmer turned champion race driver, had the audacity to think he could start his own car manufacturing company. To further emphasize the gargantuan proportions of his vision, Shelby decided his company would manufacture nothing but ultra-high-performance sports cars, beginning with the landmark Cobra, introduced in 1962. To the amazement of everyone except Ol’ Shel’ himself, Shelby Automobiles succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest expectations, building cars that would provide the benchmarks for performance (benchmarks that stand to this day) and winning world championships in the process. Shelby Cobra Fifty Years is a complete history of Shelby’s Cobra sports cars. Beginning with a prologue about the events that led up to Shelby’s decision to build a high-performance sports car, the main portion of the book tells the history of the production Cobra street cars and race cars, ending with an epilogue about the continuation cars. 

Shelbys are the most iconic performance cars in the history of the American auto industry. This lavishly illustrated work conducts readers through Shelby American's forty-plus years. An exhaustive review of American high performance, from the first Cobra produced in 1962 through today's fire-breathing, world-beating Shelby GT500KR Mustang, The Complete Book of Shelby Automobiles offers an in-depth look at the ultra high-performance cars that have made Carroll Shelby a living automotive legend. With extensive details, specs, and photographic coverage, this book is the ultimate resource on America’s most exotic performance car.   See Motorbooks author Colin Comer interviewed by Jay Leno on JayLenosGarage.com: http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/jays-book-club-lee-klancher/1211582/

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. In Thinking Small, journalist and cultural historian Andrea Hiott retraces the improbable journey of this little car that changed the world. Andrea Hiott’s wide-ranging narrative stretches from the factory floors of Weimar Germany to the executive suites of today’s automotive innovators, showing how a succession of artists and engineers shepherded the Beetle to market through periods of privation and war, reconstruction and recovery. Henry Ford’s Model T may have revolutionized the American auto industry, but for years Europe remained a place where only the elite drove cars. That all changed with the advent of the Volkswagen, the product of a Nazi initiative to bring driving to the masses. But Hitler’s concept of “the people’s car” would soon take on new meaning. As Germany rebuilt from the rubble of World War II, a whole generation succumbed to the charms of the world’s most huggable automobile. Indeed, the story of the Volkswagen is a story about people, and Hiott introduces us to the men who believed in it, built it, and sold it: Ferdinand Porsche, the visionary Austrian automobile designer whose futuristic dream of an affordable family vehicle was fatally compromised by his patron Adolf Hitler’s monomaniacal drive toward war; Heinrich Nordhoff, the forward-thinking German industrialist whose management innovations made mass production of the Beetle a reality; and Bill Bernbach, the Jewish American advertising executive whose team of Madison Avenue mavericks dreamed up the legendary ad campaign that transformed the quintessential German compact into an outsize worldwide phenomenon. Thinking Small is the remarkable story of an automobile and an idea. Hatched in an age of darkness, the Beetle emerged into the light of a new era as a symbol of individuality and personal mobility—a triumph not of the will but of the imagination.

 An exhaustive review of six generations of American high performance, from the first 6-cylinder ’Vette of 1953 through today’s fire-breathing, world-beating C6, The Complete Book of Corvette offers an in-depth look at the prototypes and experimental models, the anniversary and pace cars, and the specialty packages for street and competition driving that have made the Corvette a living automotive legend for more than half a century. With extensive details, specs, and photographic coverage, this book is the ultimate resource on America’s sports car. Officially licensed with Chevrolet and including many never-before-published photographs from the carmaker’s archives. 

Few men have impacted the sport of drag racing like Bill Grumpy Jenkins. His storied history at the drag strip began in the late 1950s, and continues today. Throughout his career, both innovation and success have followed him closely, and this book documents the long and colorful history of the competition cars that proudly bear the name Grumpy's Toy. Grumpy's Toys stands as a full and complete history of Jenkins' career to date as told through his cars, and has been heartily authorized by the man himself (Jenkins wrote the book's foreword.) Author Doug Boyce has been following Jenkins throughout his racing career, and amassed an impressive collection of vintage photography that is shared on the pages. Through his own knowledge, extensive research, and by working with Grumpy himself, Grumpy's Toys offers readers an unparalleled look behind the man and his machines. This book boasts the largest collection of Jenkins-centered vintage photography ever assembled. Input from Grumpy punctuates the tales behind the now-legendary cars, and author Boyce's fan-friendly writing style entertains. Many myths about both Jenkins and his formidable racing cars have grown over the decades, and this book separates the fact from the fiction. This book is essential for the true drag racing fan.

The fascinating story of a century-old automobile dynastyFiat is one of the world's largest automakers,  but when it made headlines by grabbing control of a bankrupt Chrysler in 2009 it was unknown in the U.S. Fiat’s against-all-odds swoop on Chrysler---masterminded by Sergio Marchionne, the Houdini-like manager who saved Fiat from its own near-collapse in 2005 – has made the automaker one of the most unlikely winners of the financial crisis. Mondo Agnelli is a new book that looks at the chain of unpredictable events triggered by the death of Gianni Agnelli in 2003. Gianni, the charismatic, silver-haired power broker and style icon, was the patriarch who had lead the company founded by his grandfather in 1899. But Gianni's own son had committed suicide. Without a mature heir, the dynasty and Fiat were rudderless. Backed by Gianni's closest advisors, his serious, shy, and determined grandson John plucked Marchionne from obscurity. Together, they saved the family company and, inadvertently, positioned Fiat as a global trailblazer when the global storm hit.A classic story of ingenuity and hard work, the book portrays a business dynasty that triumphed over adversity and family tragedy because of its own smarts, sweat, and ability to bend the rulesA an engaging tale for those interested in the stories behind the economic crash, the book contains never-before reported material about how Fiat succeeded in making Chrysler profitable where both Daimler AG and Cerberus, its previous owners, had failed.A story for a wide audience, from car buffs, business readers, lovers of Italy, and anyone fascinated by the lifestyle of Europe's most glamorous industrial dynasty, this book tells the tale of how Fiat achieved the seemingly impossible -- turning around an American automotive icon everyone else had given up for dead.