A highly readable and accessible history of the rise, and possible demise, of the car as our dominant form of transport.

But this isn’t a chronology of the motor industry, more of a social history that highlights the unforeseen and unintended consequences of the switch from horses to horseless carriages; that examines several interesting what-if scenarios along the way. I found it packed full of “I didn’t know that” moments.

The book concludes with an interesting and cautionary look at what may come next in a connected data driven world where we may move from individual ownership to connected transport infrastructures and ‘Mobility as a Service’ models. ( )

The car is considered an improvement over horses. Horses required food and stables; and produced tons of manure which needed to be cleaned from city streets. But cars created a dependency on oil and gas, produced unhealthy chemical emissions, killed thousands of people each year, take up huge amounts of space, and hugely altered city neighborhoods and country terrain.

Cars were game changers, and as such, much of the world’s urban planning, and suburban residential shopping and recreational developments, focused almost exclusively on travel by car. The result is that millions of people were compelled to adapt their lives, not just how to travel but where to live, work, and shop, around this costly modern-day miracle.

Robert Moses was an ambitious, over-reaching politician when it came to urban planning centered on vehicles. Like the world’s very first drivers, mostly very wealthy men, sped unconcerned about those they hurt or killed, Moses narrow-mindedly and insensitively, implemented construction of roads and highways by plowing through and tearing apart poor Black and Latino neighborhoods. Working under Governor Al Smith, Moses held over 12 official titles, with access to a large budget, and free rein to build parks and beaches for upper class whites, deliberately designing bridges connecting New York City to be too low for buses from inner city neighborhoods thus keeping out middle- and lower-class citizens. Yes, Americans can travel the country through our interstate highway system due to Moses’ forceful and aggressive ‘get-it-done’ dynamism. But at what cost?

To slow climate change, gain more critically needed green space, produce less emissions, reduce car accidents and deaths, people have been considering and talking about travel alternatives for years. Options include electric vehicles and automatic vehicles (AV’s) or self-driving cars. AV’s have been tested but because city roads and highways, their signage, traffic controls are complex, AV’s have been determined to have become 90% safe. Until the remaining 10% is achieved they cannot be used in large-scale settings.

While trains, buses and cars may be the best choice for long trips, travel for families and groups, and for transporting large or heavy items, there are many options better suited for local travel. Ride-sharing, biking, and scooters are examples. Logistically, travel in the future needs to be flexible. As we know, utilizing horses and cars had both good and bad consequences. With any new invention and innovation, despite testing, scrutiny and deliberation, it can be challenging to think of everything that could happen down the road and go wrong. That is why using a variety of travel options provides the versatility and adjustability to avoid getting trapped in a travel monoculture.

The smart phone, an innovation like the automobile is key to coordinating, ordering and paying for long and short trips, or a combination of both.

I learned a lot from Standage’s A Brief History of Motion…, and enjoyed reading it. But the word ‘Brief’ is inaccurate. At this point in my life, I appreciate reading more condensed and less comprehensive non-fiction books.

Tom Standage is back with another concise, fun history book. This time we delve into the history of wheeled transport, with the heart of the book discussing the evolution of the modern automobile, what it has meant for societies around the world, and what may come after it.

The first part of the book gives us an overview of what came before the modern car - highlighting wheels themselves (not considered exceptionally useful for a long, long time), then chariots, carts and coaches. This is followed by several interesting stories of early rail innovations.

After that we jump into the story of the rise of the automobile, and so we spend the rest of the book from the 1880s until today. Did you know that the first person to drive an automobile over a long distance, proving that cars could be put to practical use, was a woman? Did you know that the Model T, the most popular car of it's day, was not only the car that made the Ford Motor Company, but also, because of Henry Ford's stubborn reluctance to make major changes to his lineup of offerings, led to the company's declining fortunes in the face of upstart rival General Motors? Those are just a few of the stories Standage covers in this part of the book.

Finally, the book finishes off with a discussion of how the automobile is currently transforming, including discussion of electric vehicles, self driving cars and alternate forms of ownership and ways of consuming "rides", whether on four wheels or two.

As a child of the US heartland - Michigan in particular - cars, car manufacturing, and car culture are something I grew up surrounded with. So for me this book was an enjoyable journey through many stories and tidbits I was already mostly familiar with. I think that others not so familiar would still find this book of interest.

I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who may be interested in quick history of the automobile. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Liam Gerrard, who did an exceptional job. I rate Tom Standage's A Brief History of Motion Three Stars ⭐⭐⭐.

NOTE: My Advanced Reviewer's Copy of the audiobook version of A Brief History of Motion was provided at no cost through Netgalley and Tantor Media in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. The book, ebook (by Bloomsbury) and audiobook (by Tantor Media) versions have all just been published. ( )

Interesting Overview. Needs Bibliography. It is actually somewhat interesting to me that of five reviews on Goodreads prior to this one, one of the reviewers specifically notes a lack of footnotes as a *good* thing... and this very thing is actually pretty well the only thing I could find to *ding* this text on. But I'm fairly consistent in that - no matter what, I expect a fact-based (vs more memoir-based) nonfiction title to include and reference a decent sized bibliography.

That noted, the substance of this text was well-written, approachable, at times amusing, and full of facts from a wide range of eras that this reader had not previously known. Even in the chapter on the development of driverless cars - much more thoroughly documented in DRIVEN by Alex Davies - there were a few facts that even having read that book and being a professional software developer (and thus more generally aware of tech than some), I genuinely didn't know before reading this book. Preceding chapters tracing the development of transportation during the 19th and early 20th centuries in particular were utterly fascinating, as was later coverage of the potential future for a car-less society. Remarkably well balanced, the text tends to steer clear - pun absolutely intended - of various relevant controversies (climate change, Peak Oil, Peak Car, autonomous vehicles, car-less society, etc) even while discussing said controversies' impact on society and future developments. Truly a solid examination of its topic, and very much recommended. ( )

A Brief History of Motion by Tom Standage is an interesting and fairly comprehensive history of motion as long as one knows how the word motion is used in the title. This is not a history of travel, so don't expect that story. This is using motion almost in the narrow sense of how one, or a small number, person moves around.

I would also advise readers that while this history ultimately becomes about cars and their future, this isn't a history of the automotive industry (all makers and the small changes that make one model better than another) but about the large scale shifts leading to the automobile and then subsequent changes that provoked, or will provoke, major shifts in how we move around.

Having said all that, this very interesting and informative book covers the history of transport, essentially as it pertains to wheels in various combinations. What effect did horse manure have in motivating change? How did the rail system, including short commuter rail as well as long distance rail, affect where attention was paid? Where might we go from here?

This is a book that should appeal to most readers who enjoy social history, history told through the lens of a specific item (the wheel) as it changes over time, and changes society over time.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )