i begin the book with an epigraph from sin lair lewis -- sinclair lewis who is the first american to win a nobel prize for literature and most americans -- if they know lewis -- will know him from babbitt, and who's babbitt? he's this middle class, pompous individual who sees the car as a privilege. sees the car as something that is due him, and mechanics are greasy individuals who are serving him and pedestrians are in the way of this kind of champion driving throughout the city. ironically enough, three years before he writes babbitt sinclair lewis goes on an automotive trip across the country. he writes for the saturday evening post and in three long essays he adores the car, he adores the freedoms. he is, ironically enough, standing in for babbitt and yet making an argument that here is a device that is going to fulfill all of the modern expectations for personal freedom. his wife loves it because she can drive, and women are quick adapters to these automobiles. you can go out into the countryside and see a country that has yet to be developed for the first time. certainly, the ra