Death Drive: The Global Rise of the SUV

Tracing the history of US trade and production policy that gave rise to the SUV, leading climate journalist Kate Aronoff shows how the US opened the path for China to become the center of the global auto industry. Why are American cars so big? Over the course of the 21st century, the average car in the US has ballooned in size. Death Drive argues that SUVs' popularity in the U.S. isn't the product of some innate cultural preferences for big cars. Instead, the desire for giant vehicles is a creation of auto magnates' quest to build the ideal American man, nestled within families, cities and national myths constructed to feed their products' unquenchable thirst for oil, money and sprawl.