Professor's New Book to be Released

“Hell on Wheels,” the latest book by University history professor David Blanke will be released Tuesday, May 15. Blanke will sign copies of the book beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 30 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Corpus Christi.

Blanke’s work, subtitled “The Promise and Peril of America’s Car Culture, 1900-1940” examines America’s changing cultural perceptions of the car and explains how the automobile pulled society in two contradictory emotional directions: exhilaration in personal mobility versus anxiety over public safety.

Blanke also explores America’s early love affair with cars and drivers’ risk-taking tendencies. The 312-page book with 34 photos is being published by the University Press of Kansas. It will be sold locally at Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Waldenbooks in Padre Staples Mall.

Blanke, who was recently nominated for a Faculty Excellence Award in Scholarly/Creative Activity, also has written “The 1910s: American Popular Culture through History” and “Sowing the American Dream: How Consumer Culture Took Root in the Rural Midwest.”