Why We Drive

Matthew Crawford is the grand master of the everyday. He alerts us to the deeper meaning in ordinary activities, such as driving a car, and how they connect to concerns about freedom, responsibility and moral choice. Even if you have no interest in driving you will find yourself swept up by his elegant prose and glad to find his humane intelligence doing battle with some of the most troubling trends in modern life

DAVID GOODHART, author of The Road to Somewhere

One of the most original and mind-opening studies of practical philosophy to have appeared for many years

JOHN GRAY, Unherd

Persuasive and thought-provoking ... a vivid and heartfelt manifesto against ...the loss of individual agency and the human pleasure of acquired skill and calculated risk ... Not since Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has someone better articulated the soul-enhancing possibilities of tinkering with tools, making useful stuff work well ... a powerful (and enjoyable) corrective against that wisdom that suggests the unchecked march of all-seeing tech monopolies ... is essential to human progress

TIM ADAMS, Observer

Crawford spreads his wings way beyond cars ... neither of the right nor of the left, and certainly not of the centre ... this book is about a freedom that is being lost to the cynics of surveillance ... a defence of the felt life against the intrusions of the technocrats ... absorbing ... there is hope for the humans and the gearheads

BRYAN APPLEYARD, New Statesman

Matthew Crawford is one of those who believes that western societies are being blighted by what he terms safetyism, the elevation of safety above all else. He argues that when the state cocoons its citizens from dangers, people lose the elemental pleasure, autonomy, mastery and sense of discovery that comes from taking their own decisions and risks ... He makes the case for a broader view of the purpose of life than simply the defence of it ... I am with Crawford

JENNI RUSSELL, The Times

A pleasure to read ... His thesis demands that he convey the pleasure of driving, and he's up to the task ... And he addresses some huge, fascinating issues: how people retain self-respect when computers are deskilling them, and sovereignty over their lives when computers are spying on them. Much of modern life raises these questions, but people's relationship with their cars perhaps best exemplifies them ... an enjoyable, scenic cruise round a fascinating landscape

EMMA DUNCAN, Sunday Times

A biographical, philosophical inquiry that explores a fascinating paradox: the whole allure of driving is freedom, but it's also dangerous, so it has to be regulated ... The political and cultural consensus in the 21st century is anti-car: it's unsafe, polluting, selfish. Crawford turns some of these ideas upside down ... This is a lovely book that applies history, philosophy and literature to one obsessive subject ... a culture war over cars that pits town against country, walkers against drivers and freedom against order

Telegraph

Witty, open-minded and impossible to label as reactionary. As public polymaths go - he's an engineer, physicist, philosopher, sociologist, motorbike mechanic and a restorer of VW Beetles - he leaves Jordan Peterson at the start line

MELANIE REID, The Times

Fascinating... Crawford, who is something of an American cultural guru, never strays far from his main thesis, which is how these big tech companies milk us of data, and see the car, so central to our society, as crucial to their mission ... Crawford skilfully takes us through the gears as he intelligently ... flies the flag for individualism over dour corporative determinism

Andrew Lycett, Mail on Sunday

Why We Drive is a deeply learned read. There are eye-opening quotes and pensées on every page

Christopher Bray, Tablet

Self-directed mobility is central to what we are as humans, Crawford argues ... Now, on the eve of the autonomous vehicle revolution, Crawford begs us to consider what will be lost'

Melissa Holbrook Pierson, TLS

Crawford makes an eloquent case for better stewardship of our objects and sounds the alarm against the seemingly relentless march of 'connectivity' and 'smart' devices

Iancu Daramus, London School of Economics

A lively book that explores our passion for cars through a blend of history, philosophy, literature and autobiography

Daily Telegraph

Why We Drive...makes excelling reading, and includes a fascinating and in-depth look at the subject

Mud Life