Starred Review ALA Booklist (Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2017)

Starred Review In Wheels of Change (2011), Macy revealed the liberating effect that bicycles had for women, and here she extends this theme to the empowering history of the automobile. At the turn of the twentieth century, cars were navigating America's roads for the first time, and women were eager to get out of the house and behind the wheel. While Macy traces early automotive innovations (automation, electric starters, closed carriages, etc.), her focus remains on how women used the car to achieve independence and win the right to vote, embarking on lengthy auto tours to gather support for their cause. She explains how women were banned from auto racing ewed as a man's sport Europe and the U.S., only to see many silent film actresses embrace roles involving exciting car chases. Later, during WWI, women stepped up to drive ambulances and deliver supplies, further establishing their tenacity and competence behind the wheel. Macy's lively writing and vivid descriptions of treacherous road conditions become all the more fascinating when combined with the crisp archival photos, car advertisements, news stories, and quotations embellishing each chapter l captioned and cited. Biographical spreads on "motor girls" and lists of early, absurd driving laws and etiquette add to the engaging nature of this well-researched text. Steer any reader with an interest in history towards this fantastic book.

Horn Book

Macy explores the intersection of automotive history and women's rights in this image-packed volume. An overview of the rise of the personal automobile focuses on women's access to cars, while interspersed accounts of early motor races spotlight talented female drivers. Macy maintains an entertainingly upbeat tone throughout, but oversized sidebars pad this slim book with too much tangential trivia. Reading list, websites. Ind.

Kirkus Reviews

Well-documented proof that, when it came to early automobiles, it wasn't just men who took the wheel. Despite relentlessly flashy page design that is more distracting than otherwise and a faint typeface sure to induce eyestrain, this companion to Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (2011) chronicles decided shifts in gender attitudes and expectations as it puts women (American women, mostly) behind the wheel in the first decades of the 20th century. Sidebar profiles and features, photos, advertisements, and clippings from contemporary magazines and newspapers festoon a revved-up narrative that is often set in angular blocks for added drama. Along with paying particular attention to women who went on the road to campaign for the vote and drove ambulances and other motor vehicles during World War I, Macy recounts notable speed and endurance races, and she introduces skilled drivers/mechanics such as Alice Ramsey and Joan Newton Cuneo. She also diversifies the predominantly white cast with nods to Madam C.J. Walker, her daughter, A'Lelia (both avid motorists), and the wartime Colored Women's Motor Corps. An intro by Danica Patrick, checklists of "motoring milestones," and an extended account of an 1895 race run and won by men do more for the page count than the overall story—but it's nonetheless a story worth the telling. Macy wheels out another significant and seldom explored chapter in women's history. (index, statistics, source notes, annotated reading list) (Nonfiction. 11-14)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Macy builds on Wheels of Change, which examined the connections between women-s rights and the mobility offered by the bicycle, as she chronicles the history of the automobile and the paths that led women to become motorists. Against a backdrop of captivating archival photographs and excerpts from periodicals, she introduces several -Motor Girls- who made strides behind the wheel. In 1909, Alice Ramsey became the first woman to drive a car across the United States; she was followed by numerous other cross-country female drivers and racers. A section on WWI demonstrates how the war necessitated that women pilot ambulances and other automobiles, further solidifying that woman could, and wanted to, drive vehicles. Using the lens of automotive history to inform a greater narrative about women-s liberation, Macy capably shows how threads of the past are intertwined. Ages 10-up. (Feb.)