The Mechanical Horse: How the Bicycle Reshaped American Life by Margaret Guroff

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Mechanical Horse: How the Bicycle Reshaped American Life by Margaret Guroff James Longhurst The Mechanical Horse: How the Bicycle Reshaped American Life. By Margaret Guroff. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2016. 280 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $24.95 cloth. Once again, the bicycle is back in the American story. After more than a century of alternating obsession and obscurity, the two-wheeled conveyance has returned. In their own generations and for their own purposes, Americans had previously turned to bicycles: thrill-seeking upper classes in the nineteenth century, turn-of-the-century bike mechanics with aspirations of powered flight, and fuel-sipping environmentalists in the nadir of the 1970s. In the twenty-first century, congested cities, unhealthy populations, and underemployed millennials have once again taken to the wheel. How can the long history of this everyday object help us to understand the nation's story? Margaret Guroff's book offers a bright and accessible overview that is still rooted in scholarly work—particularly cultural history. The Mechanical Horse is a part of the "Discovering America" series; editor Mark Crispin Miller notes that the intent is to "offer fresh takes on events and people we thought we knew well and draw unexpected connections that deepen our understanding of our national character." Guroff's contribution to that mission is a readable, carefully contextualized and sprightly tour of a topic that most Americans have dismissed as unserious. Overcoming that perception, The Mechanical Horse successfully shows that the bicycle is a central thread running through much of the national narrative. As Guroff puts it, "much of American history cannot be told as it happened without the bicycle leading the way" (2). The text is filled with stories that place the bicycle in context with the society and culture around it. Choosing two from countless examples, the personal freedom that women of the 1890s experienced on the bicycle is described as "bolster[ing] scientists' then-radical argument that what is good for one human body is just as good for another" (49). Elsewhere, bicycling is related to the history of the family: "As children moved from the periphery to the center of the middle-class American family . . . the bicycle became an indispensable accessory for them, an emblem of parental love" (114). In all instances, this contextualization cites relevant scholarly research. The Mechanical Horse is more of a guided tour of history than it is original research. Nor is it especially focused on the Great Plains, though it does successfully avoid an exclusive focus on the East Coast. But it is an exceptional example of an empathetic historical imagination, and fantastically good at making history accessible to all. Just like the bicycle. [End Page 433] James Longhurst Department of History University of Wisconsin–La Crosse Copyright © 2018 The Center for Great Plains Studies and The University of Nebraska Press