James J. Flink is professor emeritus of social sciences at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of The Automobile Age (MIT Press, 1988). He wrote “The Path of Least Resistance” (Fall 1989) and “The Olympian Age of the Automobile” (Winter 1992).
THE MODEL T TRANSFORMED THE WORLD, BUT IT WAS OUTDATED from the start. And a great many changes that Henry Ford worked on his supposedly changeless car only made matters worse. Read >>
It has taken most of a century for automobile makers to learn to design truly aerodynamic cars. Now they may be approaching the practical limits of streamlining. Read >>
