20th Century Cars

Start Your Engines: 20th Century Classic Cars

Henry Ford jump-started the age of the automobile with the first assembly-line car in 1908: the Model T. Over the next century the automobile evolved from chugging workhorse to tailfin-era showboat to sleek status symbol, complete with sleek hood ornament. Initially a novelty item, the car grew into a necessity of the modern age, and a vector of freedom on the open road.

20th Century Classic Cars offers a a lush visual history of the automobile, decade-by-decade, via 400-plus print advertisements from the Jim Heimann Collection. Using imagery culled from a century of auto advertising, this book traces the evolution of the auto from horseless carriage to rocket on wheels–and beyond. With an introduction and chapter text by New York Times automotive writer Phil Patton, as well as an illustrated timeline, this volume highlights the technological innovations, major manufacturers and dealers, historical events, and influence of popular culture on car design. Here are car trends as reflection of the zeitgeist, from the thrifty VW Beetle to the lumbering, gas-guzzling Hummer. Time-travel through the Automobile Age, with a collection that puts you in the driver's seat.

About the editor:
Cultural anthropologist and graphic design historian Jim Heimann is Executive Editor for TASCHEN America, and author of numerous books on architecture, pop culture, and the history of the West Coast, Los Angeles and Hollywood. His unrivaled private collection of ephemera has featured in museum exhibitions around the world and dozens of books.

About the author:
Phil Patton writes about car design for The New York Times, and is a contributing editor to ID magazine. He was a consultant for "Curves of Steel: Streamlined Automobile Design" at the Phoenix Art Museum, and "Different Roads: Automobiles for the Next Century" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.