“For most of its history, as Brian Ladd points out in this fascinating account, critiquing the automobile has been a useless exercise—it rolled on over all opposition. But this year—when Americans are suddenly parking their gas guzzlers and lining up for the bus—is the right year to read this book, and to try and figure out what our century-long affair with the car says about us and about our future.”

Bill McKibben

"Increases in oil prices have driven gasoline costs into the psyche of every American. Ladd documents a century of expanding U.S. reliance on vehicles powered by oil, most of which has to be imported. He frames his analysis in familiar concepts: the automotive industry as employer, urban migration from cities by families relying on automobiles for transportation, traffic/congestion/roadways, and damage to the environment from burning fossil fuels. Several of these themes have been explored recently, e.g., in Tom Vanderbilt’s Traffic, Paul Roberts’s The End of Oil, Tim Falconer’s Drive, and James Howard Kunstler’s The Long Emergency. Ladd sets his work apart by showing how the car is completely woven into the fabric of our cultural and economic history. As such, he writes, we have accepted the dark side of the automobile—pollution, congestion, high energy costs, and accidental loss of life—in exchange for personal mobility. His pessimistic forecast sees increases in automobile use even as energy prices continue to climb."

Library Journal

"The work of Autophobia is precisely about looking again at what has been said, by whom and for what reason, and why none of the voluminous critiques of the car—by any number of estimable figures—seem to have much mattered. [Ladd] does this with equanimity and scholarly aplomb (particularly on the European response to motorization), and for a slender volume, this book has a lot under the hood."—Tom Vanderbilt, New York Times Book Review

Tom Vanderbilt | New York Times Book Review

"[Ladd looks] at what has been said, by whom and for what reason, and why none of the voluminous critiques of the car seem to have much mattered. He does this with equanimity and scholarly aplomb . . . and for a slender volume, this book has a lot under the hood."

Tom Vanderbilt | International Herald Tribune

"Although most histories of the automobile discuss problems and critics, no work to date has made criticism its central focus, making Autophobia a welcome contribution to the literature. No car lover, Ladd does a laudable job presenting the views of the automobile’s proponents as well. But the book’s great strength is its multinational scope."

Tom McCarthy | Journal of American History