Chronicling the development of midwestern community automobile manufacture prior to the Great Depression, a detailed volume identifies five early car makers and how they contributed to the automobile industry. UP. YA- Prior to World War I, before Detroit became the center of the automobile industry, entrepreneurial types teamed with inventive craftsmen in widely scattered towns across the Midwest and began manufacturing vehicles independently. Teens will be drawn to the stories of these autos and trucks in this well-researched and well-written account of five of these early companies. As a bonus, they'll get a lively essay on the personalities of the enterprising founders, the social history of the communities involved, the development of advertising and sales techniques, and the reasons for the companies' demise. Photographs and line drawings are included. Recommended for car buffs and libraries supporting a curriculum dealing with the history of American business and industry. Patricia Q. Noonan, Prince William Public Library, Manassas, VA Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. We forget that in the salad days of the U.S. automotive industry there were far more companies than exist today, most of them coming to horseless-carriage making from horse-drawn carriage making, and certainly not all were located in Detroit--cars "were made everywhere." Copious research and a love for his subject stand behind McConnell's thorough, lively history of five auto companies that operated out of the Midwest in the early years of the century: Luverne of Minnesota, Moon of Missouri, Patriot of Nebraska, Smith of Kansas, and Spaulding of Iowa. This attractively illustrated volume is a sprightly read as the author analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of each company and the car it produced and each manufacturer's target consumer, advertising and sales tactics, and reasons for eventual disappearance from the marketplace. A book that will thrill car fanciers. Brad Hooper