Tag Archives: transportation

The Horse in the City

Posted on November 21, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Horse in the City© 2007 Clay McShane, Joel A. Tarr242 pages To the American imagination, horses are the stuff of country dreams, of farms and cowboys. This is a recent conceit, however, as for most of American history humans … Continue reading →

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Downtown

Posted on October 24, 2015 by smellincoffee

Downtown: Its Rise and Fall (1880 – 1950)© 2001 Robert Fogelson544 pages Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city!Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty — how can you lose? The lights are much brighter … Continue reading →

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Pedal to the Metal

Posted on August 6, 2015 by smellincoffee

Petal to the Metal: The Work Lives of Truckers© 1994 Lawrence Ouelett247 pages ICC is a-checkin’ on down the lineI’m a little overweight, and my logbook’s way behind But nothin’ bothers me tonight, I can dodge all the scales all … Continue reading →

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Engines of War

Posted on July 17, 2015 by smellincoffee

Engines of War: How Wars Were Won and Lost on the Railways368 pages© 2010 Christian Wolmar An army marches on its stomach, but for a hundred years it rode to victory only on the rails.  It was Napoleon who observed … Continue reading →

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The Age of Steam

Posted on August 22, 2014 by smellincoffee

A Brief History of the Age of Steam© 2007 Thomas Crump288 pages For most of human history, transportation over land has been prohibitively expensive, limited to highly lucrative goods like silk. Trade grew from the rivers, as did civilization. But … Continue reading →

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Fighting Traffic

Posted on July 22, 2014 by smellincoffee

Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City© 2008 Peter Norton396 pages Stroll into the middle of any American city today, and provided you are not in Detroit, odds are better than not you will be … Continue reading →

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Ninety Percent of Everything

Posted on May 21, 2014 by smellincoffee

Ninety Percent of Everything:  Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate.© 2013 Rose George287 pages UK Title: Deep Sea and Foreign Going: Inside Shipping […] What is 1300 feet … Continue reading →

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Human Scale

Posted on May 15, 2014 by smellincoffee

Human Scale© 1980 Kirkpatrick Sale500 pages             Human Scale is an ambitious assault on big business, big government — the very concept of Bigness. Opening with biology, Kirkpatrick Sale first establishes his basic operating principle:  for … Continue reading →

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The Other Side of Western Civilization

Posted on December 15, 2013 by smellincoffee

The Other Side of Western Civilization: Readings in Everyday Life,© 1979 ed. Stanley Chodorow363 pages The Other Side of Western Civilization collects readings in social history ranging from antiquity to the Renaissance. Its subtitle Readings in Everyday Life is largely … Continue reading →

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This week at the library: airborne hell, David Sedaris, and coffee with evil

Posted on November 4, 2013 by smellincoffee

Last week I broke off from The City in History to do some light reading, beginning with Phillip Kerr’s Hitler’s Peace, a bit of speculative historical fiction which will be getting full comments tonight. The novel features an Office of … Continue reading →

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