| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 220 words from this article are provided below; about 372 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Tinkering: Consumers Reinvent the Early Automobile. By Kathleen Franz. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. 224 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-8122-3881-8.)
Drawing on a wide variety of published and archival sources, Kathleen Franz argues that automotive tinkering (modifying the body of an automobile) was a form of popular culture. Tinkering enabled drivers and owners to be active rather than passive consumers in changing the technology to suit their needs, primarily for auto touring, and in defining new identities during the early part of the twentieth century in the United States. By the 1920s automobile manufacturers were capitalizing on consumer innovations, such as accessories, including the "trunk," which was initially attached to the outside of the car by straps, by incorporating them into the standard design of the American automobile. In the 1930s streamlining made the car more difficult to modify. The auto shows and world's fair exhibits of that era popularized the idea that corporate scientists and engineers, not drivers, were in charge of technological innovation in the auto industry.	1
Franz devotes chapters to after-market accessories, women and the automobile, consumers as patenting inventors, and efforts by the automotive industry to control the design of the car. An epilogue brings the story up to today's customizing of cars and the popular radio show Car Talk.	. . .

There are about 372 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.