The history of automobiles is not just the story of invention, manufacturing, and marketing; it is also a story of repair. Auto Mechanics opens the repair shop to historical study—for the first time—by tracing the emergence of a dirty, difficult, and important profession.
Kevin L. Borg's study spans a century of automotive technology—from the horseless carriage of the late nineteenth century to the "check engine" light of the late twentieth. Drawing from a diverse body of source material, Borg explores how the mechanic’s occupation formed and evolved within the context of broad American fault lines of class, race, and gender and how vocational education entwined these tensions around the mechanic’s unique expertise. He further shows how aspects of the consumer rights and environmental movements, as well as the design of automotive electronics, reflected and challenged the social identity and expertise of the mechanic.
In the history of the American auto mechanic, Borg finds the origins of a persistent anxiety that even today accompanies the prospect of taking one's car in for repair.
Kevin L. Borg is an associate professor of history at James Madison University.
Table of Contents
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Technology's Middle Ground1. The Problem with Chauffeur-Mechanics2. Ad Hoc Mechanics3. Creating New Mechanics4. The Automobile in Public Education5. Tinkering with Sociotechnical Hierarchies6. Suburban Paradox: Maintaining Automobility in the Postwar Decades7. "Check Engine": Technology of DistrustConclusion: Servants or Savants? Revaluing the Middle GroundNotesEssay on SourcesIndex
What People are Saying About This
Neil Gladstein
I found the history fascinating and was glad to see [Borg] addressed workplace issues I hear about all the time . . . Although there is a lot of overlap of car/truck mechanics with manufacturing workers we represent who build and fix equipment (machinists, tool & die makers, electricians, etc.), they are a different craft with their own set of issues.
From the Publisher
I found the history fascinating and was glad to see [Borg] addressed workplace issues I hear about all the time . . . Although there is a lot of overlap of car/truck mechanics with manufacturing workers we represent who build and fix equipment (machinists, tool & die makers, electricians, etc.), they are a different craft with their own set of issues.—Neil Gladstein, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers