World History of Mobility

Gijs Mom is Associate Professor Emeritus at Eindhoven University of Technology, specializing in the history of mobility. He is the author of Atlantic Automobilism (Berghahn Books, 2015), Globalizing Automobilism (Berghahn Books, 2020), and Pacific Automobilism (Berghahn Books, 2022). He was a co-editor, with Georgine Clarsen and Mimi Sheller, of the Berghahn Books series “Explorations in Mobility,” and the founder and first editor of Transfers, Interdisciplinary Journal of New Mobility Studies.

“The social construction of road technology presented here offers an enlightened reading of one of the fundamental elements of modernity, and of the prosperity and crises of our societies.” • Mathieu Flonneau, Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, SIRICE, IAES-EDS“Gijs Mom’s trilogy on world mobility history is a monument in the field. Vast in scope, it integrates global problems in transport, technology, society and culture, defying boundaries of nationality, language and discipline. As at great architectural monuments, however, dimensions may intimidate. But now, in A World History of Mobility, we have the architect himself to guide us on an insider’s tour. Mom has distilled decades of global mobilities scholarship into a readable essay. Specialists will savor it, and newcomers will find it the best available introduction to the field.” • Peter Norton, University of Virginia

• PrefaceIntroduction: Making World Mobility HistoryChapter 1. Imperialist And Colonialist Mobilities, 1850-1918Chapter 2. Migratory And Other Subversive Mobilities, 1920-1940Chapter 3. Decolonization, Development, and the Globalization of the Car Society, 1940s-1970sChapter 4. The Global Shift to Pacific Automobilism and the Epidemiology of the Car, 1970s-2010sChapter 5. The End of the Car and its AlternativesConclusion: Past to Future, Atlantic to PacificAnnotated Canon: Introducing Mobility HistoryBibliographyIndex