Actions for Auto mechanics : technology and expertise in twentieth-century America

Email RIS file
Bookmark
Report an Issue

Auto mechanics : technology and expertise in twentieth-century America / Kevin L. Borg

Author
Borg, Kevin L.
Published
Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.
Copyright Date
©2007
Edition
Johns Hopkins pbk. ed.
Physical Description
viii, 249 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Availability

Browse Nearby on Shelf
I Want It
I Want It

Finding items...

Series
Contents
The problem with chauffeur-mechanics -- Ad hoc mechanics -- Creating new mechanics -- The automobile in public education -- Tinkering with sociotechnical hierarchies -- Suburban paradox : maintaining automobility in the postwar decades -- "Check engine" : technology of distrust.
Summary
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 fauit lines of class, race, and gender and how vocational education entwined these tensions around the mechanic's unique expertise. --
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. --
"An important contribution to U.S. labor and economic history and to our understanding of the ways that the mass production of automobiles changed working life."Journal of American History --
"In seven richly detailed chapters, theoretically sophisticated and attentive to nuances of race, class, and gender, Borg analyzes the changing background training, and, expertise of auto mechanics over the course of the twentieth century."Technology and Culture --
"A superbly researched, engaging look intp the profession that's near and dear to us all.Motor Magazine --
"Borg's own work in the repair shop infuses the study with insights that I am sure would escape anyone without the experience he has had. His questions are anything but academic."AutoWeek --
"A source of inspiratioan the those who would like to work to improve the industry's image recruitment and retention." Import Automotive Parts & Accessories --
"An excellent work that has much to contribute to our understanding of the automobile technology, and wider trends in American history." Michigan Historical Review --Book Jacket.
Subject(s)
ISBN
0801894859
9780801894855
Note
Developed from author's dissertation for the Hagley Program in the History of Industrialization, University of Delaware.
Originally published: 2007.
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages [179]-242) and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 11530548