Autumn! Time for a book!

• 
• 

Only recently Vincent van der Vinne got a doctor degree in history based on the development of mobility in Holland since the dawn of automobilism up to WW II. Vincent really made a thorough study of the subject which he condensed in 400+ pages of fine print. Now if history is not your thing and reading not your hobby you still can graze heaps of fun from the book. Not only because of the artwork like above. Between the longer lines of historic argument and reasoning there is wealth of details that make you think. Did you know the price of gas per liter(!) was more than a workman's wage per hour around 1900? So gas prices are lowered (!) considerably over the last hundred years. Between 1896 and 1905 the import of cars was in the hands of some 20 companies who all had been active in bicycles before. Dr van der Vinne made a study of the first small group of drivers. The first Dutch Automobile Club. The birth of roadtax. And gradually he sketches the picture of a small country with wealthy but rather conservative people where the car had a long struggle to get mass acceptance... In 2007 things have changed. On an average weekday nobody can move due to the availabilty of 7,000,000 cars to 16 million Dutch. Sadly the book will not be available in English very soon, but the next page gives you a summary in English of The slow growth of car mobility in the Netherlands (1896-1939)
(illustrations courtesy Louwman Collection)

Kommentar abgeben...