In his new book,  Junkyards, Gearheads & Rust: Salvaging the Automotive Past, Dr. David N. Lucsko surveys the world of taking apart end-of-life cars and selling second-hand parts as well as looking at the car as art and tight-knit community of car enthusiasts. David, an associate professor of history at Auburn University, also wrote The Business of Speed: The Hot Rod Industry in America, 1915-1990.  In this session, Lucsko will discuss his new book's look at the relationship between car enthusiasts and salvage yards in the United States -- not a straightforward history of the auto salvage parts business, but a history of car enthusiasts and salvage yards.

 

As a car enthusiast for as long as he can remember, Lucsko grew up working on old cars and visited salvage yards for odds and ends. The trips to the salvage yard were something that was taken for granted -- just part of the experience of being a gearhead.  In his discussion, Lucsko will talk about the regulation of salvage yard businesses and cars deemed "junky" or "eyesores" by the authorities - as well as cover the ways car enthusiasts have pushed back against the regulatory marginalization of their pastimes.