This is the story of how the essence of life in America changed because of the widespread adoption of the automobile, the people and institutions behind those changes, and how American car culture has been represented in film, song, poetry and literature. The book covers the automobile from its inception as a mechanical curiosity and later a plaything for the well-to-do; Henry Ford and the rise of the machine age; competition and the evolving consumer in the 1920s; the development of roads and the accompanying road culture; religion, gender, courtship and sex; the Great Depression; World War II; the 1950s golden age of automobiles and the emergence of youth culture, the hot rod and rock and roll; societal changes in the 1960s as represented by automobiles; and, the numerous changes since 1980.