Outlaw Machine: Harley-Davidson And the Search For the American Soul
Outlaw Machine: Harley-Davidson and the Search for the American Soul
CRIPES, NOT ANOTHER HARLEY BOOK! BOOKSHOP shelves are thick with the blinkin' things, hacked out to make a quick buck while the Milwaukee Marvel is hot news. Happily, Outlaw Machine: Harley-Davidson and the Search for the American Soul is not just another Harley book.
• First off, it's penned by Car and Driver columnist Brock Yates, salty dog of automotive journal ism. It's one thing to document Harley's middle-years quality-control and image problems; quite another to describe the bikes as "laughable arks" ridden by "carbohydrate-overloaded slobs who puttered around on their bojangled Elec tra Glides." The man knows his way around a keyboard. There are a few glaring fact errors (an archive photo of the lowly VL Flathead is mis-captioned as a 1936 Knuckle head, only the most important bike in Harley history), which strangely didn't get corrected in the recent paperback printing. And while Yates is an artisan with words, his photos fail to rise much above snapshot level.
Yes, there are more detailed, better illustrated histories out there, most simple “clip-jobs” regurgitating the same old alphabet soup of H-D model names. This book is a deeper treatment, more contemplative. Motor Company disciples will gain info and insight here they won’t find anywhere else-even if along the way a few of their revered icons get a little dusting up. And for those who just don’t get the whole Harley phenomenon, Outlaw Machine should be required reading.
David Edwards
Outlaw Machine: Harley-Davidson and the Search for the American Soul, Brock Yates, 202 pages, $24, Little, Brown and Company, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020; 800/759-0190; www.twbookmark.com
