Born to Be Wild, a History of the Americ

Informationen zum Autor Paul Garson has a 30-year background in journalism and photography that has produced some 2500 magazine and periodical features, including a number of articles in World War II History and World War II Quarterly. A free-lance writer, he lives in Los Angeles. Klappentext Take an exhilarating ride through the history of the American bike, biker, and the biker nation in this fascinating and comprehensive chronicle of the biker era and today's ever-expanding legion of motorcycle enthusiasts. Impassioned, idiosyncratic, and razor sharp, Born to Be Wild traces a century's worth of the culture, the bikers, and the bikes themselves.Who are these bikers? Are they those hard-living, leather-clad, tattooed guys often associated with images of the Hells Angels and Satan's Sinners? Or are they those clean-cut, suit-and-tie wearing riders with the sporty helmets you pass on your daily commute? In fact, they are both, for what began as a subculture of misfits and outlaws has grown into a flourishing society of men and women who celebrate the freedom of the open road and the brotherhood they find among bike enthusiasts of all stripes.Today's biker has evolved from the rough-and-tumble antihero to a vast and vibrant biker culture populated by a new breed of rider including the RUBs, or Rich Urban Bikers, and championed by everyone from titans of industry like the late Malcolm Forbes to media celebrities like Jay Leno. And while elements of rebellion still remain intrinsic to the biker mystique, the culture has in fact expanded to include a plethora of riders from the American mainstream -- doctors, lawyers, and executives -- who love the freedom they find on their bikes and the camaraderie they find with their fellow devotees. It is also a multibillion-dollar industry that draws hundreds of thousands of participants and spectators to its annual events.Born to Be Wild, written by motorcycle journalist Paul Garson and the editors of Easyriders magazine, captures as never before the spirit and evolution of the biker era. Beginning in 1895, Born to Be Wild traces the development of the modern bike, with special attention to Harley-Davidson's supreme contributions to the quality of the machines as well as the aesthetics of biker society. Featuring numerous fascinating sidebars that highlight the particular characteristics of the culture, the book also explores the socio-political events that have culminated in the great biker nation that we know today.With more than two hundred photographs of bikes and bikers across the decades, Born to Be Wild is a definitive work that will open readers' eyes to a thriving society, one whose celebration of freedom and the open road precisely reflects what is best about our country as a whole. Leseprobe 1895-1946: The Prehistoric Biker History is what the winners say happened. In this case, the winner was Harley-Davidson. The Milwaukee Marvel alone survived the Hundred Years' War, a century of innovation and most often extinction. Scattered across the scrapyard battlefields of the first few decades of the twentieth century, you could count the rusting steel bones of around three hundred different American motorcycle manufacturers. Well, let's call them motorcycle builders, since some built only a handful, literally. So where have they all gone? We gave these machines names -- colorful, even memorable names like Apache, Argyle, Black Diamond, Buckeye, Comet, Crouch, Duck (put the latter two together and it described what pedestrians found themselves doing when the spindly things came blatting around the corner on a muddy dirt road) -- and so personified them, glamorized them. Then there were the Dusenberg, Elk, Hemingway, Herring, Kokomo, Mack, Marvel, Flying Merkel, Nelk (an Elk relative?), Pansy (don't go there), Pirate, P-T (don't pity its passing), Ruggles, Schickel (not the gruber model), Thiem (remember them?), Thor, Torpedo (yep, ...

Product details

• Authors: Easyriders, Editors of Easyriders, Paul Garson
• Publisher: External catalogues UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 16.03.2010
• EAN: 9781416575238
• ISBN: 978-1-4165-7523-8
• Subject: Guides > Motor vehicles, aircraft, ships, space travel > General, dictionaries, handbooks