Some Classics Never Die

“Someone should write an erudite essay on thr moral, physical, and esthetic effect of the Model T Ford on the American nation. Two generations of Americans knew more about the Ford coil than the clitoris, about the planetary systems of gears than the solar system of stars. With the Model T, part of the concept of private property disappeared. Pliers ceased to be privately owned and a tire pump belonged to the last man who had picked it up. Most of the babies of the period were conceived in the Model T Fords and not a few were born in them. The theory of the Anglo Saxon home became so warped that it never quite recovered.”

John Steinbeck, Cannery Row, 1945

photo via corbisIMAGES