Highways to Heaven

the long version

From the early days of the horseless carriage to tomorrow's dream cars, the history of the automobile has been inextricably intertwined with the culture of twentieth-century America. The automobile altered everything, from the way crimes were committed to the way courtships were conducted, and the car itself came to embody power and independence, becoming the ultimate erotic accessory--a sexual object of sometimes ambiguous gender. In Highways to Heaven, Christopher Finch chronicles the dramatic rise of the automobile and describes how it transformed the American landscape and the American psyche. He evokes the ambitious men who created a giant industry and shows how that industry, and our passion for the automobile, shaped the world we live in today--the world of freeways and exurbs, of shopping malls and fast-food franchises--even determining the character of whole cities like Los Angeles.