Made in USA: 2the Secret Histories of the Things That Made America by Phil Patton

Phil Patton

""Dreamland,"" ""Area 51"" and ""Groom Lake"" refer to a military base in Nevada about which the government has maintained a stony silence. Built in the early 1950s, this testing site marked the Continue reading »

Phil Patton

The Volkswagon Bug-so named for its outline, its droning engine and its ""insectlike ubiquitousness""-is no simple car, argues Patton in this entertaining history: it is ""a shape, a set of ideas-and Continue reading »

Phil Patton

This genial tribute to the American highway system reads like a collection of magazine featuresnot only about how and why the federal government funded the enormous network but also about such Continue reading »

Phil Patton, Jeana Yeager, Richard Rutan

On the morning of December 23, 1986, Yeager and Rutan, man and wife, set down their one-of-a-kind, home-built airplane, Voyager, at the base in California where, little more than nine days earlier, Continue reading »

Phil Patton

Vastly informative and great fun to read, this lively account explains how popular technology helped mold American society--and vice versa. Impressively erudite Esquire columnist Patton ( Open Road ) Continue reading »

Made in USA: 2the Secret Histories of the Things That Made America

Phil Patton. Penguin Books, $20 (416pp) ISBN 978-0-14-017588-2