Motorized Obsessions: Life, Liberty, and the Small-Bore Engine

Motorized Obsessions: Life, Liberty, and the Small-Bore Engine. By Paul R. Josephson. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. xv + 258 pp. Notes, appendix, index. Cloth, $22.00. ISBN: 978-0-80188641-6.

Reviewed by Terence Kehoe

Readers of this journal who engage in outdoor recreation will no doubt have encountered, or perhaps operated, the noisy and-to many-exciting vehicles that are the primary focus of this book: snowmobiles, personal water craft (popularly known as jet skies), and all-terrain vehicles or ATVs. In the United States alone, millions of people, many under the age of eighteen, regularly engage in outdoor recreational activities centering on the use of these machines. In Motorized Obsessions, Paul Josephson, a professor of history at Colby College, examines the development and spread of recreational machines and gardening equipment powered by small-bore internal combustion engines and considers their impact on the natural environment and the health of those who use them. Josephson believes that the negative impacts of these machines on the varied environments in which they are used, as well as the serious injuries and loss of life associated with their operations, have not been fully appreciated by the general public. His detailed discussion of these issues, primarily as they pertain to North America, is meant to remedy that situation.

In the opening chapter, which provides an overview of the book's themes, Josephson describes how the mass production of relatively inexpensive small-engine vehicles has enabled any person with the inclination and income to engage in forms of outdoor recreation that are much more dangerous and disruptive to the environment than previous forms that did not depend on the use of powerful machines. The small and simple two-stroke internal combustion engines that initially drove most of these machines were noisy and dirty, but they provided plenty of horsepower to enthusiasts at an affordable price. The widespread use of snowmobiles and related machines has drawn cries of protest from hikers, cross-country skiers, and other recreationists who charge that these vehicles undermine their own enjoyment of nature. The clash between the two groups of users has been most intense in national and state parks and other public areas that are managed by government agencies and valued for their natural beauty and relative undeveloped character. In Josephson's view, the National Park Service and other government agencies made something of a deal with the devil early in the twentieth century when they decided to promote the public's use of these lands through the construction of automobile roads, visitor centers, and other infrastructure that would allow visitors to carry the comforts and convenience of modern life into "natural" areas. Allowing small-engine vehicles into such areas with little or no restrictions, he argues, was a logical extension of such attitudes.

The three chapters that form the heart of the book address snowmobiles, personal watercraft, and ATVs, respectively. Each chapter contains similar components. Josephson provides a brief history of the industry, stressing technological developments, and then examines both the ways in which the particular machine affects the environment and the safety record of the vehicle. Conflicts over government regulation of noise and pollution are also addressed, and the author describes various battles over attempts to restrict the operation of small-engine recreational machines in certain areas. Not surprisingly, manufacturers fought regulations aimed at lessening noise and limiting emissions, arguing for voluntary standards instead. For their part, the owners and operators of ATVs, snowmobiles, and personal watercraft downplayed the environmental damage caused by their machines, and portrayed the unrestricted operation of these machines as a matter of individual liberty. To his credit, although Josephson is an advocate of greater restrictions on the use of such vehicles, he does not caricature their owners, and he notes the positive sides of their use. The last chapter addresses lawnmowers, leaf blowers, and other motorized gardening equipment. This chapter is shorter than the previous three and functions as something of an add-on. Still, although not recreational machines in the same sense as the other machines profiled, this type of gardening equipment has its own set of environmental and safety issues, and I found myself wishing for more discussion of these products.

Josephson has synthesized a great deal of information in Motorized Obsessions, and the reader will walk away with a much better appreciation of how these machines developed, their widespread use, and the negative consequences associated with their operation. Josephson has apparently done no archival research for this study, but he does draw upon a variety of sources: federal and state government reports, specialized journals in medicine and natural-resources management, and materials produced by companies, trade associations, and user groups, as well as environmental organizations. Many of these sources were obtained via the Internet, which raises questions about their availability in a few years' time. Because of the absence of archival research, business historians will find the discussion of the companies involved in the manufacture and sale of these products interesting but somewhat thin. Motorized Obsessions may be most useful for scholars interested in issues concerning technology and social responsibility. The author is clearly concerned more with the present than the past; he could have done a better job of placing developments in historical context, particularly the changing nature of outdoor recreation in America in the twentieth century. Finally, this is one book that would have benefited immensely from illustrations. Some readers may not be familiar with the variety of vehicles being discussed. A judicious selection of pictures would have enlivened the text and illustrated examples of the marketing campaigns, environmental damage, technical innovations, and other subjects discussed throughout the book.

[Author Affiliation]

Terence Kehoe is senior associate with Morgan, Angel & Associates in Washington, D.C. He is the author, with Charles Jacobson, of "Environmental Decision Making and DDT Production at Montrose Chemical Corporation of California," published in Enterprise & Society (December 2003).