Synopses & Reviews
Carjacked is an in-depth look at our obsession with cars. While the automobiles contribution to global warming and the effects of volatile gas prices is widely known, the problems we face every day because of our cars are much more widespread and yet much less known -- from the surprising $14,000 that the average family pays each year for the vehicles it owns, to the increase in rates of obesity and asthma to which cars contribute, to the 40,000 deaths and 2.5 million crash injuries each and every year.
Carjacked details the complex impact of the automobile on modern society and shows us how to develop a healthier, cheaper, and greener relationship with cars.
http://www.carjacked.org/
Review
"Emphasizing the attachment of values such as personal independence to car ownership, not to mention self-image and status, Lutz and Fernandez cheerily saunter through automobile advertising and movies to show how mass media exploit people's desire to buy cars." Booklist
Review
"Authors Catherine Lutz and Anne Lutz Fernandez effectively and accessibly lay out the social, financial, historical, and of course, environmental impact of America's love affair with the internal combustion engine." Planet Green
Synopsis
Carjacked is an in-depth look at our obsession with cars. While the automobiles contribution to global warming and the effects of volatile gas prices is widely known, the problems we face every day because of our cars are much more widespread and yet much less known — from the surprising $14,000 that the average family pays each year for the vehicles it owns, to the increase in rates of obesity and asthma to which cars contribute, to the 40,000 deaths and 2.5 million crash injuries each and every year.
Carjacked details the complex impact of the automobile on modern society and shows us how to develop a healthier, cheaper, and greener relationship with cars.
For more information, visit www.carjacked.org/
About the Author
Catherine Lutz is the Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Family Professor of Anthropology and International Studiesat Brown University where she holds a joint appointment with the Department of Anthropology. As an author and editor, Professor Lutz has published nine books. Anne Lutz Fernandez is a former marketer and investment banker with fifteen years of corporate experience. She is an English teacher in Westport, Connecticut.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Dream Car: Myth-making, Western Values, and the Automobile 23
The Pitch: How They Sell
The Pitch: How We Buy
The Catch: What We Really Pay Chapter 6. The Catch: The Rich Get Richer
Why We Drive
Drive Time Remakes Us
Getting Carsick
Full Metal Jacket: The Body Count
Conclusion: A Call to Action