American Cars of the 1950's

The "American Cars of the 1950's" book I ordered was delivered on time and in exactly the same condition as advertised.

This book is well-produced in a very easy-to-read format. If you're looking for in-depth details you won't find them. But if you want a picture of life in the 1950s this book is for you. Each brand of car is presented alphabetically by name and then year-by-year. The color, quality of paper and the printing process are all first-rate. You'll also learn about the independent makes that didn't survive the decade like Hudson, Packard and Willys. I recall visiting our local Ford dealer in the 1950s as a small boy and collecting the brochures for each model. I would study them for hours. You could not help but be impressed with with each company's self-promotion on how good their make of car was. This book condenses the highlights of all of those old brochures and helps convey the message of how great the '50s truly were.

If you love old cars, this is a must have. Almost all of the cars are shown in color. It is a world that is gone, but the pages bring back memories of very large, colorful cars. The price of gas was not a problem. The air conditioning was the wind in your face. The seats of the car were as large as your mother's divan. What memories...

Yet another book of Fifties cars and in fact this is the publisher's second book on the subject. The earlier, 'Cars of the Fabulous '50s' (ISBN 078530939X) by James Flammang was a sort of definitive guide on glossy paper with 1600 color photos (including ad illustrations and other graphics) that covered every American car. This latest book covers the same subject in less detail but has an interesting angle: virtually all the images are paintings of cars originally used in ads and brochures. Using slick, photorealist type art makes this a rather handsome little book I thought. Detroit obviously favored car art because reality could be stretched to make these dream machines seem bigger and a whole tribe of wee folk could sit inside. As well as several hundred cars there are logos of the twenty-four makes and plenty of those engine-block illustrations that you used to see in car ads, usually in a panel with some over-the-top copy about all the extra horsepower this exciting new power unit could deliver. As well as great car art, the book is handsomely designed and printed and could well be a real memory jogger if you remember looking at those flamboyant auto ads that filled the weekly consumer magazines more than fifty years ago. ***FOR A LOOK INSIDE click 'customer images' under the cover.