Hard Driving: The 1908 Auto Race From New York to Paris

by Dermot Cole

Overview

In the winter of 1908, six cars left Times Square bound for Paris. They were embarking on a remarkable motor race across the world that would capture everyone’s imagination. In this book, Dermot Cole weaves a thrilling account of the improbable journey west from New York to Paris, the varied characters, and the nascent automobile industry. Drawing from the drivers’ journals and extensive newspaper reports, Cole details the many hardships, triangulations, and physical extremes encountered along the route as the drivers attempted to race from coast to coast, cross the Bering Strait to Russia, traverse Siberia, and onward.

Hard Driving delves beyond the riveting headlines to explore the race’s implications for global politics and diplomacy and how the automobile became a viable mode of transportation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781602234031
Publisher:	University of Alaska Press
Publication date:	05/15/2020
Series:	Classic Reprint Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	250
Sales rank:	741,861
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Dermot Cole has worked as a newspaper columnist in Alaska for more than forty years. He is the author of several books, including Fairbanks: A Gold Rush Town That Beat the Odds.

Table of Contents

Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Long Way around the World 2. The Road to Paris 3. Snowbound 4. Of Mud and Motorists 5. Riding the Rails 6. Through the Gold Fields 7. North to Alaska 8. An Act of Splendid Folly 9. The Siberian Express 10. The Dash to Paris 11. The Homecoming Notes Sources Index

Editorial Reviews

"Dermot Cole, a resident of Alaska since 1974, grew up at several places in the world, has published both journalistic and academic style history, and first published this work in 1991. Of the nearly global circumferencing implicit in this book’s contents, several chapters certainly highlight aspects of the American West: adventurous travel West as far as Alaska while it was a territory and a pioneering phase of the fledgling automobile industry."

Keith A. Sculle