Desmond Morton is the director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, and a member of the Order of Canada. In Wheels: The Car in Canada, he covers the history of the automobile and how it has altered the way Canadians live, work, and play through the 20th century.

The 10 chapters in Wheels deal with the 10 decades of this century. This is an artificial breakdown, but one that has the advantage of convenience. A point-form preface to each chapter outlines the decade’s main events, and helps to place the story in a broader context. The text is brief, readable, and filled with interesting facts. For example, in 1913, Prince Edward Island allowed cars out only on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays; many townships banned them altogether. Sidebars give additional information on such things as speed limits, and reproduce handy hints like the one about keeping the wiperless windshields of the day clear in wet weather by rubbing them with a sliced onion.

The growth of the suburbs after the Second World War made the car an indispensable part of our lives, but that wasn’t always the case. Before the war, a vehicle was primarily a rural essential (in 1920 Saskatchewan ranked second after Ontario in motor vehicle registration) and, at the beginning of its short history, it was merely a toy for the rich.

The illustrations are as important as the text, creating a feel for the time covered. They are extensive, ranging from advertisements and accidents to an “auto laundry” in the Humber River in 1927. The layout is excellent with many photographs spread over two pages and vintage cars driving on from somewhere off the page.

Wheels is an interesting, readable, and entertaining book that paints a vivid picture of the automobile and its influence on our lives – from Henry Seth Taylor’s “steam pleasure palace” of 1867 to the zero emission technology of the year 2000.