Why We Drive

Why We Drive

On Freedom, Risk and Taking Back Control

Summary

Why We Drive is a rebellious and daring celebration of the human spirit and the competence of ordinary people by the bestselling author of The Case for Working with Your Hands.

Once we were drivers on the open road.

Today we are more often in the back seat of an Uber.

As we hurtle toward a 'self-driving' future, are we destined to become passengers in our own lives too?

In Why We Drive, the philosopher and mechanic Matthew Crawford celebrates the risk, skill and freedom of driving. He reveals what we are losing to technology and government control in the modern world, and speaks up for play, dissent and occasionally being scared witless.

'Fascinating... A pleasure to read' Sunday Times

'Persuasive and thought-provoking... A vivid and heartfelt manifesto' Observer

Reviews

  • One of the most original and mind-opening studies of practical philosophy to have appeared for many years
    John Gray, Unherd

About the author

Matthew Crawford

Matthew Crawford is the author of The Case for Working with Your Hands: Or Why Office Work Is Bad For Us and Fixing Things Feels Good and The World Beyond Your Head: How to Flourish in an Age of Distraction, which have been translated around the world. His writing has also appeared in the New York Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Independent, Wall Street Journal as well as numerous magazines and journals. Matthew is a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, lectures internationally and runs a motorcyle repair shop.
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