The USA from a Chevrolet : Scenes from a Forty-year Drive in a '65 Biscayne

In July 1965, an Artesian Turquoise Chevrolet Biscayne rolled off a General Motors assembly line destined for a dealership in Utica, New York, where it caught the eye and the imagination of the author. When he and his father purchased it on August 11, little did James Ward know that this car would become a member of the family, playing a role in his honeymoon, years of graduate school, the birth of his daughter and her first driving lesson, among countless other memories. Four decades - and a lot of history - later, the author still owns and drives this rolling historical artifact dubbed Phoebe. Using the family car as a narrative thread, this first-person account explores American history over the last forty years as experienced by the author. From Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, from the automotive industry to fast food franchises, it chronicles American life since the mid - 1960s. In his faithful Phoebe, the author witnessed a KKK cross burning, took part in a civil rights march, passed through the eye of a major hurricane and drove across the back roads of twenty-first century America, he and the car aging together. Photographs accompany this unique memoir.