The historyof 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.
REVIEW
History as it should be written "American History," "World History"--these were required courses in high school and even early college. I remember the titles, but none of the details they covered. Early on, I decided that politicians, generals, and CEOs were basically boring, but their behavior was all that history courses covered. I always wondered what the real people, the little people, were doing while those bothersome dominant personalities were posturing and fighting. As I've aged, I've discovered that good history has been written--on subjects akin to my own lifestyle and my own interests. Auto Mechanics, is, I believe an excellent example.
I bought the book as a gift for my stepson, a self-styled auto buff and one of the few members of the X-generation (they hate the word yuppies) that can still crawl under a car and loosen a drain plug--or change a starter for that matter. And he can get as excited over a ratty old Jeep as a brand new Z. He and I avoid talking economics or politics, but we connect over cars. When the book arrived, I casually inspected it to make sure I wasn't sending something completely inappropriate. I finished reading it three evenings later, and it arrived late for his birthday, perhaps looking not quite new. In a sense, a big chunk of it was a history of me.
I'm not a mechanic by trade. I spent my employed years as a wildlife biologist. But my first car, acquired at age 16, was a 1940 Ford woody that didn't run. I think we paid $10 for it, or maybe the guy paid us $10 to haul it away, I can't remember. I spent a summer in the uncooled Phoenix auto shop of an older cousin rebuilding the engine, and from that day forward, I could never quite envision owning a car that one simply drove. If I didn't work on a vehicle as much as I drove it; if I didn't know its innards intimately, I felt both insecure and guilty on the road. I still do.
In Auto Mechanics, I learned that such was the norm of the first couple of generations of drivers. Initially, only the wealthy could own cars, and their carriage men converted to chauffeurs. Auto shops were nonexistent, so the chauffeurs maintained vehicles, just as they had previously fed, groomed and shod horses. If they broke down on the road, they sought the local blacksmith, who gradually found himself fabricating car parts instead of setting horseshoes. Not until the advent of the Model T, followed quickly by World War I, did a cadre of car owners and mechanics arise in middle class America. The army had quickly adopted motorized vehicles in the war, and men who could work on them were almost non-existent. Many young men who entered the service as cowboys, farmers, or clerks, mustered out as trained mechanics. From that time until, perhaps, the 1980s, owning a car entailed some ability to fix it and was a symbol of manlihood.
Auto Mechanics brings us through many stages of car repair, including the role of women and difficulties they've faced in entering the trade. It ends in modern shops where knowledge of electronics and computers is more important than the ability to listen to an engine and run simple tests. And it ventures predictions regarding where the automobile may be headed.
As in any good history, covering essential details makes reading a little tedious at times. But don't let that deter you. If you happen to love cars, this book will tell you, better than any thing I've read, how we came to our present full and frenetic roadways. And even if you aren't a car buff, this is an interesting piece of real World History.
"Auto-Mechanics Course 1: The Engine; A Self-Teaching Course;Education Manual EM 950, Selected and prepared by the editorial staff, United States Armed Forces Institute, For the use of personnel of Army-Navy-Marine Corps-Coast Guard. By Ray F. Kuns. Published for the United States Armed Forces By the Bruce Publishing Company. Copyright 1944." "Prefaces to books are not very interesting. Few people read them. But we have some things we want to tell you that will help you use this book to best advantage in learning about automotive vehicles. First of all, many of you may find it a little hard to get back into the habit of study. Most people do find it hard because it's easy to get rusty mentally. Probably the main difficulty is in getting used to the kind of reading you have to do. Obviously, a scientific textbook is not a story magazine. You've got to read slowly and thoughtfully. You've got to be sure you really understand what you are reading. Even though you understand all the words, you may have to go back over the text two or three times to get the idea. But the more you study, the easier it is to study efficiently..." [from book "how to use this book"]
Get a behind-the-scenes view of some of the nation's most important service jobs. While they may not seem glamorous, the highly skilled workers in these professions build our homes, maintain our cars, keep our power and water running, and even nurse us back to health.
The fourth edition of this invaluable guide exposes body shop scams, helps identify dependable mechanics, gives tips on getting repairs done for free even after the warranty expires, and clues car owners in on vehicle maintenance secrets.
REVIEW
Pretty Good This is a great book for people who like to repai their cars themself. This is also a great book for people who love cars.
Charting the vicissitudes of her own life, and the travails and triumphs of the lives of those whom she knows and loves, Harryman's poems travel great distances, both internally and geographically, from the Kentucky of her youth to the California of her present moment (with a detour in Europe). In this movement we encounter moments of wisdom and insight, the small epiphanies derived from love and loss, grief and celebration, dreams and nightmares, curses and blessings . . . from gratitude and despair. Auto Mechanic's Daughter is a lyrical journey into life's private places and the small joys encountered there.
REVIEW
A non-poetry guy just loved this book of poetry... Well, a non-poetry guy just loved this book of poetry. I'm genuinely surprised at how many emotions I felt as I read Karen Harryman's poems... and really amazed at how powerful some of them felt, considering how few words she sometimes chose to use. Some of my favorites were "Washing Dishes"... "Anniversary"... "The Truth"... "White Trash Blessing"... and of course, the "Auto Mechanic's Daughter". Many of them have the feeling that they were written by someone who has walked through several different lifetimes, all in the same pair of very worn shoes... especially "White Trash Blessing". I should say here that I'm the kind of guy who thought poetry had to rhyme and usually end in some sort of filthy but funny joke, so I can't emphasize enough how much I enjoyed reading this book... and how much the poems truly touched me... and how I now wished I had parceled out the poems over the course of a month, reading one a night, instead of having read them all in one sitting. I will be sure to not makethat mistake on Karen Harryman's next book.
This digital document is an article from Semana, published by Spanish Publications, Inc. on September 4, 1997. The length of the article is 446 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details Title: La reparación del auto, un asunto serio. (cómo conseguir un mecánico honesto y de confianza)(TT: Auto repair, a serious matter) (TA: how to find a reputable and honest auto mechanic) Publication:Semana (Magazine/Journal) Date: September 4, 1997 Publisher: Spanish Publications, Inc. Volume: v4 Issue: n237 Page: p20(1)
