Death Drive: There Are No Accidents

Cars have a talismanic quality. No other manufactured object has the same disturbing allure. More emotions are involved in cars and car design than in any other product: vanity, cupidity, greed, social competitiveness and cultural modelling. But when all this perverse promise ends in catastrophe, these same talismanic qualities acquire an extra dimension.

The car crash is a defining phenomenon of popular culture. Death Drive is both an appreciative essay about the historic place of the auto...