Auto Mechanics: Technology and Expertise in Twentieth-Century America (Studies in Industry and Society)

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The history of automobiles is not just the story of invention, manufacturing, and marketing; it is also a story of repair. Auto Mechanics opens the repair shop to historical study—for the first time—by tracing the emergence of a dirty, difficult, and important profession.

Kevin L. Borg’s study spans a century of automotive technology—from the horseless carriage of the late nineteenth century to the “check engine” light of the late twentieth. Drawing from a diverse body of source material, Borg explores how the mechanic’s occupation formed and evolved within the context of broad American fault lines of class, race, and gender and how vocational education entwined these tensions around the mechanic’s unique expertise. He further shows how aspects of the consumer rights and environmental movements, as well as the design of automotive electronics, reflected and challenged the social identity and expertise of the mechanic.

In the history of the American auto mechanic, Borg finds the origins of a persistent anxiety that even today accompanies the prospect of taking one’s car in for repair.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B002DMLHW8
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Johns Hopkins University Press (June 1, 2007)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 1, 2007
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3365 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 280 pages