Overview

For most of the twentieth century, America's love affair with the car went unchallenged. Gas prices were kept low, ever more roads and highways built and maintained, and this year's model always looked a little better than last year's. Then, in fairly short order, gas jumped to $4 a gallon, the housing bubble imploded and the current economic crisis was upon us. Suddenly, car owners had reason to question what is on average, their biggest household expense. Carjacked gets into the meat of America's obsession with cars and explodes myth after myth along the way. While the automobile's contribution to global warming and the effects of volatile gas prices are is widely known, the problems Americans face every day because of their cars are much more widespread and yet much less known - from the surprising $14,000 per year that the average car costs to own to the uptick of incidences of obesity and asthma that car ownership seemingly causes to the more than 6 million car accidents a year at a cost of $230 billion. Carjacked sheds new light on the complex impact of the automobile on American society and shows us how to develop a new and healthier relationship with cars, a relationship that is both cheaper and greener.

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9780230618138

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<p>Praise for Carjacked: <p> The authors capture the fantasy and reality of our love of cars.They hold up a mirror to we, 'the people, ' to let us look at our individual and collective glamour and bloat.&#160; They ask, subtly and with a good amount of wit, if we know what we are doing to ourselves?&#160; You must read it to learn the answers, which might surprise you. - John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil, founder and CEO of Citizens for Affordable Energy and author of Why We Hate the Oil Companies <p>&#160;<p> Carjacked should be required reading for anyone with a driver's license. It lays out the ways that bigger, faster and more plentiful cars on the road have altered America in dramatic way, influencing foreign policy, infrastructure investment, national health and personal wealth. If we wish to drive into a better future, rather than collide with it head on, it's time to address our addiction to the automobile - and this book is the perfect starting place. &#821

<p>Praise for Carjacked: <p> The authors capture the fantasy and reality of our love of cars.They hold up a mirror to we, 'the people, ' to let us look at our individual and collective glamour and bloat. They ask, subtly and with a good amount of wit, if we know what we are doing to ourselves? You must read it to learn the answers, which might surprise you. - John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil, founder and CEO of Citizens for Affordable Energy and author of Why We Hate the Oil Companies <p> Carjacked should be required reading for anyone with a driver's license. It lays out the ways that bigger, faster and more plentiful cars on the road have altered America in dramatic way, influencing foreign policy, infrastructure investment, national health and personal wealth. If we wish to drive into a better future, rather than collide with it head on, it's time to address our addiction to the automobile - and this book is the perfect starting place. - Leigh Stringer, pres

Author Information

CATHERINE LUTZ is a Watson Institute professor at Brown University, USA where she holds a joint appointment with the Department of Anthropology. As an author and editor, Professor Lutz has published nine books. She was until recently president of the American Ethnological Society, the oldest professional anthropological association in the United States. ANNE LUTZ FERDINAND is a former marketer and investment banker with fifteen years of corporate experience. Ms. Fernandez is currently a teacher of English in the Westport, Connecticut public school system, USA.

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