Abstract
A historian's craft entails to present a compelling narrative of the past. There is a great interest in mobility histories and these historical accounts enrich the “mobilities” discourse. However, most of these histories are located in the Global North contexts, and more specifically around the few countries on both sides of the Atlantic. A transport or mobility history that covers the regions beyond the Pacific is missing. Gjis Mom's Pacific Automobilism fills this void and he does it not simply but with a powerful 1000+ pages book.
Throughout this book, I was astounded by the amount of resources and references Mom has pulled in to create a narrative and continue from where he left off in his previous works (Atlantic and Global Automobilism). Employing Bhatkin's ideas of carnivalesque and ideas of irony/post-irony, Mom conceptualizes the car as an “adventure machine”. We visit the American fascination with the car in the early sections and then we move onto a narrative where the view is from Asia-Pacific. Mom takes us to geographies such as China and India, where car usage has spiked exponentially post-1990s and the car has become a symbol of middle-class prosperity and even evoking similar sentiments evident in car societies of North America. However, he positioned these developments and mobilities in an era, where from “peak car” we have transitioned to “post car” with the exigencies of climate change at our door steps.
Mom's book is divided into two parts. In the first part titled, “Doom for Some? Questioning the Car”, he undertakes a historical tracing of the car and society in the period from 1970 to 1990s. In an era of peak oil and a new modern post-industrial society, he places the car as an object in tandem with post-modernity. With the emergence of international aid and development through institutions such as the World Bank and IMF; the hegemony of American policies and the dollar, the car then becomes an important lens in understanding Western mobilities and global automobilism. He talks about the urban crises in American cities that were chained to the model of “highway planning”, that positioned the car as an attractive mode of transport. However, in a period when peak and shock oil happen, the mobility promised by the car also poses critical questions on energy and consumption. In later parts of the chapter, he borrows from American and European literary and film references that have demonstrated this liberatory and adventure character of the car, where men and women view driving as “freedom”. Mom in detail explores Black, Latin, Working-class mobilities and their relationship with the car.
In the second part of the book titled, “Confusion: Where is the Adventure?” has two detailed chapters where the focus shifts from the western hemisphere. Opening with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, in the chapter titled, “Motorization Miracle”, the chapter deals with how the Chinese society and market opened up to welcome this automotive adventure. Mom attempts to answer the question whether the global automobilism seen in the West with its carnivalesque and adventure traits, is being replicated within the narrative of “opening up and reform” as seen in China, India, and elsewhere. This chapter is well-written and informs the audience who might want to understand the China-story and its social, economical, and political transformation.
Borrowing from events such as the Chinese entry into the WTO, Beijing Olympics, Mom narrates deftly the rise of the “Chinese middle class” and how their journey towards modernity is punctuated with mobile phone consumerism, housing and most importantly the car as a symbol of “status maker” or “prosperity”. Mom also moves the discussion around questions of “informal transport”, “public transit”, “transit-oriented development” all of which are animated discussions in policy and planning circles, especially when institutions, such as World Bank, transitioned from their “car bias” to acknowledging “informal transport” as a solution. In the concluding chapter, Mom examines the future of mobility with a question of the other, alternative mobilities. How does the future of mobilities look, especially with “newer mobility regimes” on the rise and in an era where it's the post-ironic “deplorable car”.
Mom's book is nothing but an extraordinary account of mobility history, which is much required in the space of transport and mobilities history. By employing a fine mix of theoretical frameworks and archival research, Mom is able to explain how automobilism that promised individual freedom and speed becomes global, attracts entire societies in the Asia-Pacific region and leads to a complete restructuring around its prime object, “the car”. While this work is fascinating to this reviewer, who is currently dabbling with a similar historical project looking at roots of automobilism in Indian cities, the long drawn almost 200 pages per chapter can be a difficult read. It was exhausting, but at each turn, Mom presents you with newer evidence sometimes drawn from film, music, literature, or contemporary events. It's this amalgamation and presentation of history that makes Mom's book an exciting read and a fitting third act to his trilogy on automobilism.
