It's 1888 and Bertha Benz's husband, Karl, has invented the prototype Benz motorwagen. But the German government declares the vehicle illegal, and the church calls it the devil's work. Unbeknownst to her husband, Bertha steals away with her two sons and drives nearly one hundred miles to prove just how amazing the motorwagen is. Bertha's mechanical savvy gets the boys to Grandma's house safely, and the remarkable mother/son road trip reduces global concern about moving vehicles.

In this nonfiction joyride, Bertha Benz and her sons drive across Germany in the world's first automobile. It's 1888 and Bertha Benz's husband, Karl, has invented the prototype Benz motorwagen. But the German government declares the vehicle illegal, and the church calls it the devil's work. Unbeknownst to her husband, Bertha steals away with her two sons and drives nearly one hundred miles to prove just how amazing the motorwagen is. Bertha's mechanical savvy gets the boys to Grandma's house safely, and the remarkable mother/son road trip reduces global concern about moving vehicles.

Recounts the story of the first automobile journey, made by Berta Benz and her two teenage sons in 1888.

Bertha Benz and her sons drive across Germany in the world's first automobile.

To most people, cars are just appliances to be disposed of when they rust, become unreliable, or are outgrown. But to car people, it's different. Cars are like photographs that occupy physical space. They hold aromas that trigger memories, and remind us of who we once were. In addition, to some people, the relationship with the car itself is a real thing. Many enthusiasts pine for the cars of their youth, regret that they ever let them go, and yearn and search for them the way people do with old lovers, hoping to find them and rekindle that old spark. In Resurrecting Bertha, Rob Siegel assures you that this is normal (well, as normal as anything is with car people), and embarks on this journey himself. Writing in his trademark Hack Mechanic voice that's enthralled readers for 35 years, Rob describes his original eight-year relationship with his highly-modified 1975 BMW 2002 "Bertha," selling the car to a dear friend, its 26 years of storage, and buying it back in a weak whisky-soaked moment only to experience the "oh dear God what did I just do" regret when he raises the long-closed garage door and comes face-to-face with the badly deteriorated car. The book details the steps Rob went through to get the car running, then driving, then sufficiently sorted to make a 2000-mile drive, and how the reconnection with the car was so much deeper than he expected. Resurrecting Bertha is about more than just the nuts and bolts; it's about deciding what's important, the joy of doing good, and how, if you do it right, not only can you go home again, but you can do so in the same car.

“ ... My excuse for writing this book is a desire to ventilate certain facts in relation to the early work of Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler of which the public is largely ignorant. Among those who have taken the trouble to investigate the early days of the motor movement, there is a certain amount of controversy as to who invented the motor vehicle, although this question has not, at the moment, extended to the general public. Inevitably it will do so, if the prevailing interest increases, in which event, it is hoped that this book will prove useful, for all the dates and facts, etc., have been fully authenticated. There are, however, several to whom I must express my sincere gratitude for the assistance they have given me. Herr Rudolf Caracciola, the winner, during the 1935 season of motor racing, of the Grand Prix of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, and Tripoli, to say nothing of other triumphs, and therefore the Champion of Europe, has most kindly written a preface after reading through the manuscript. The Daimler-Benz Aktiengesellschaft of Germany has been indefatigable in providing me with material in regard to certain facts connected with the early experiments of both Benz and Daimler. Mr. Frederick R. Simms, too, has spared no effort to help me with some of the inner details of Daimler’s engineering career.” ( ST. John C. Nixon - September, 1936)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER • USA TODAY! BESTSELLER In this beautifully written, vividly detailed memoir, a young woman chronicles her adventures traveling across the deserts of the American West in an orange van named Bertha and reflects on an unconventional approach to life. A woman defined by motion, Brianna Madia bought a beat-up bright orange van, filled it with her two dogs Bucket and Dagwood, and headed into the canyons of Utah with her husband. Nowhere for Very Long is her deeply felt, immaculately told story of exploration—of the world outside and the spirit within. However, pursuing a life of intention isn’t always what it seems. In fact, at times it was downright boring, exhausting, and even desperate—when Bertha overheated and she was forced to pull over on a lonely stretch of South Dakota highway; when the weather was bitterly cold and her water jugs froze beneath her as she slept in the parking lot of her office; when she worried about money, her marriage, and the looming question mark of her future. But Brianna was committed to living a life true to herself, come what may, and that made all the difference. Nowhere for Very Long is the true story of a woman learning and unlearning, from backroads to breakdowns, from married to solo, and finally, from lost to found to lost again . . . this time, on purpose.

This anthology takes a broad approach to ethics, incorporating traditional topics and texts while bringing in voices and themes that are too often excluded. A substantial section on ethical theory is provided, as are readings on topics such as oppression, sex, identity, the environment, life and death, war and terror, and caring for others. Accessible introductions and discussion questions are included throughout to contextualize material for the student reader without playing favorites among the positions at issue.

The companion volume to the PBS documentary film about the first—and perhaps most astonishing—automobile trip across the United States. In 1903 there were only 150 miles of paved roads in the entire nation and most people had never seen a “horseless buggy”—but that did not stop Horatio Nelson Jackson, a thirty-one-year-old Vermont doctor, who impulsively bet fifty dollars that he could drive his 20-horsepower automobile from San Francisco to New York City. Here—in Jackson’s own words and photographs—is a glorious account of that months-long, problem-beset, thrilling-to-the-rattled-bones trip with his mechanic, Sewall Crocker, and a bulldog named Bud. Jackson’s previously unpublished letters to his wife, brimming with optimism against all odds, describe in vivid detail every detour, every flat tire, every adventure good and bad. And his nearly one hundred photographs show a country still settled mainly in small towns, where life moved no faster than the horse-drawn carriage and where the arrival of Jackson’s open-air (roofless and windowless) Winton would cause delirious excitement. Jackson was possessed of a deep thirst for adventure, and his remarkable story chronicles the very beginning of the restless road trips that soon became a way of life in America. Horatio’s Drive is the first chapter in our nation’s great romance with the road. With 146 illustrations and 1 map