First Taste of Freedom: A Cultural History of Bicycle Marketing in the United States

Abstract

A large segment of the American public has an attachment to the bicycle, forged when they received their first bike, a defining moment of childhood. In First Taste of Freedom Robert J. Turpin mounts a convincing argument that the history of bicycle marketing can illuminate the cultural history of the United States. Marketing strategies have changed over the past 150 years, governed by demographic, technological, and moral shifts; gender and class have also aided the evolution of the bicycle in American society. Turpin argues that in the United States the history of the bicycle is just as important as the history of the automobile. This proposition is difficult to prove and will most likely be met with considerable skepticism, but Turpin's narrative and analysis demonstrate the bicycle's social and cultural significance. Bicycle sales experienced relatively short periods of boom followed by brief downturns that seemed to threaten the industry. The appeal of the bicycle shifted back and forth from adults to children. Through much of the twentieth century the bicycle was regarded as a child's toy, a form of recreation primarily for boys. Receiving a bicycle for a birthday or as a Christmas gift became a middle-class priority.