Driving Force: Automobiles and the New American City, 1900-1930

Have you ever wondered how and why Los Angeles became so obsessed with cars?

Join authors Darryl Holter and Stephen Gee in discussion as they share excerpts from their new book Driving Force: Automobiles and the New American City, 1900-1930 and the story of the pioneering auto dealers who seized the chance to join a start-up industry that reinvented an American city.

Book signing to follow discussion.

Darryl Holter is a historian, automobile dealer, and musician. His books include The Battle for Coal: Mineworkers and the Politics of Nationalization in France, Workers and Unions in Wisconsin: A Labor History, and Woody Guthrie L.A.: 1937 to 1941. As the CEO of Shammas Automobile Group, he oversaw eight dealerships including the iconic Felix Chevrolet and was the founding Chairperson of the Figueroa Corridor Business Improvement District in L.A.’s historic Auto Row. He is an Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Southern California and a member of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 47.

Stephen Gee is an award-winning writer and television producer based in Los Angeles. He is the author of Iconic Vision: John Parkinson, Architect of Los Angeles (2013), and co-author, with Arnold Schwartzman, of Los Angeles Central Library: A History of its Art and Architecture (2016), which won the 2016 Glenn Goldman Award for Art, Architecture, and Photography, presented by the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association. He also wrote Los Angeles City Hall: An American Icon (2018) and Paul R. Williams: Master Architects of Southern California 1920-1940 (2021), produced in collaboration with Marc Appleton and Bret Parsons.