Entering the Auto Age: The Early Automobile in North Carolina, 1900-1930

Robert Ireland's study demonstrates that the introduction of the automobile in North Carolina helped spawn a new industry and also fostered the Good Roads movement. A blend of urban boosterism, Progressive politics, prison reform, and love for newfangled machinery, the Good Roads movement symbolized the coming of the auto age. Ireland has done more than provide the political and economic history--he has explored the cultural impact of the automobile on people and personal life-styles. This is a book for the social historian as well as the old-car enthusiast.