My rationale for this project was that, despite widespread public interest in and concern for the motor car, the body of existing literature fell firmly into two opposing camps: uncritical enthusiasm for the automobile and implacable opposition to it.

My book explored a territory that passed between these two camps by considering the culture of the car in the widest possible sense, covering film, art, architecture, sexuality, literature, design, advertising and identity. This global reach of subject matter was a conscious reflection of the universality of the car culture. My book is an original contribution to the field of automotive study, as it drew on the expertise of historians, critics and artists from a broad range of disciplines, the majority of whom had not written explicitly on the subject of car culture previously but who shared a critical concern with the consequences of a century of car production and use.

The book engaged a new, non-specialist but interested and informed audience, whose perspective had largely been overlooked in the highly specialised literature of the automobile.

I co-commissioned 25 new essays from writers who, in most cases, had not previously written about cars in relation to their discipline, and wrote the essay 'Trouble in Motor City', which chronicled the history of car production in Detroit, drawing on my extensive research into Detroit in anticipation of a forthcoming monograph on the city. I also co-authored, with Professor Murray Fraser, the essay 'Motopia: Cities, Cars and Architecture', which provided an extensive overview of the long and troubled relationship between cars and architecture, and made predictions for the future of that relationship. The book was reviewed in the Journal of Transport History, The Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies, The Independent, and the London Review of Books.