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Review - Drive On! A Social History of the Motor Car - L. J. K. Setright

There is such a thing as a book that succeeds despite its author, and occasionally that's the feeling you have about this one. He clearly knows his stuff, but sometimes his prose becomes so turgid that its impossible not to skip on in the hope of something more readable. Take the opening sentence of the whole book (if one ignores the preamble):

"The sources of invention and the tributaries of discovery seldom flow directly or rapidly towards those reservoirs of employment wherein pragmatic men acknowledge the genius of their prognostic mentors."

Phraseology that would be pompous in a Victorian, let alone a modern writer. Luckily Setright does get warmed up, after which these verbal suet puddings recur rather less frequently. On other occasions he comes over all car journalist, thrilled by some compression ratio or other that couldn't raise an eyebrow in a mere mortal. And Setright also tries, rather disastrously, to demonstrate his scientific knowledge by setting the chronology of cars against scientific breakthroughs. (Unfortunately he doesn't get it right. He says, for example that the decade 1906-15 "began and ended with the greatest papers of Albert Einstein" - stretching the decade to 13 years to include the big three of 1905, and 1917 general relativity. A few pages later he comments that Bohr "gave us the atom's modern image [in 1913]" - only modern if you last saw any physics in the 1950s.) And should the reader be able to cope with all that, he has an affected habit of referring to himself in the third person.

But, but, but, don't stop reading now, a plea that has to be applied to both this review and the book when you are mired in that porridge-like first page. (Help, I'm catching wordiness disease!) The style may occasionally irritate, but he certainly knows his cars, and imbues what has to be one of the most significant technological developments ever in its impact on our social and economic development with the grandeur it deserves but is rarely awarded.

It's a book of two halves - the first a chronological survey of the car's lifetime, the second a series of collections of what appear to be articles or essays. This inevitably leads to some repetition, but it isn't too painful. It also gives Setright the opportunity to air in more detail his more dramatic assertions: that the car has liberated humanity (not to mention got us wearing lighter clothing), that most rules applying to motoring (from speed limits to safety features) are unnecessary and that most of the ills blamed on motoring from using up non-renewable resources to global warming and acid rain are just wrong. It's like listening to the rant of a favourite old uncle - you might not agree, but it's enjoyable nonetheless.

The message, then, is that this a flawed book, but still a unique tribute to the car and its impact on society that will fascinate as much as it infuriates.

Also in hardback (US version is hardback):

Reviewed by Martin O'Brien

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