The emergence of the motor car transformed the 20th century. This illustrated book examines the earliest history of the motor age, explaining the first attempts to develop a self-propelled road vehicle. Often these early pioneers employed strange and dangerous tactics in their quest for the motor car, but nonetheless by 1914 and the outbreak of World War I, the broad outlines of the modern car were firmly in place. This book investigates the social history of the early motor age, and the love-hate relationship which developed between the motorist and the general public, as well as the politics that lay behind the liberation of motoring from the crippling legislation that existed at the time. Discussing the technical progressions in accessible language, Stuart Hylton considers the development of the cars and the impact of motor racing, as well as revealing many of the characters--both heroes and villains--who shaped the dawn of the motor age.