Taking Charge: The Electric Automobile in America

The tumultuous history of inventors and corporations who have tried to bring the electric car to the market.

Amazingly, in 1900 28 percent of all cars were electric. By 1920 the electric car had all but vanished and gas-powered cars dominated the market. In Taking Charge, Schiffer deftly explores how cultural factors, not technological ones, explain the rise of gas-guzzling cars. Schiffer brings the history of the electric car into the present, arguing that despite the Detroit Big Three’s reluctance to make electric cars, their time has finally arrived.

Schiffer (anthropology, U. of Arizona) has added an informative new preface to this paperbound reprint of his 1994 history of the electric car; he suggests that despite the Detroit Big Three's reluctance to make and market electric cars, it could be that their time has come. His book delves into the many reasons for the electric car's failure to dominate its gas-guzzling cousins after its auspicious beginnings in the early 1900s—reasons that involve sociology, economics, and government policy as well as technology. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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Describes the early history of electric automobiles, 1895-1920, and how they vanished, not because of technological deficiencies but in a battle about money and gender. Women preferred the quieter, safer electric cars, but men wanted the roaring, speedy gas engines made by Henry Ford. Schiffer (anthropology and traditional technology, U. of Arizona) also reviews the current technology and prospects for a revival. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Michael Brian Schiffer is professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson and the author of seven books, including The Portable Radio in American Life (1991).