Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road

A brilliant and defiant celebration of driving as a unique pathway of human freedom, by "one of the most influential thinkers of our time" (Sunday Times)

"Why We Drive weaves philosophers, thinkers, and scientific research with shade-tree mechanics and racers to defend our right to independence, making the case that freedom of motion is essential to who we are as a species. ... We hope you'll read it." —Road & Track

Once we were drivers, the open road alive with autonomy, adventure, danger, trust, and speed. Today we are as likely to be in the back seat of an Uber as behind the wheel ourselves. Tech giants are hurling us toward a shiny, happy “self-driving” future, selling utopia but equally keen to advertise to a captive audience strapped into another expensive device. In this insightful book on technology and society, are we destined to become passengers, not drivers? Why We Drive reveals that much more may be at stake than we might think.

Ten years ago, in the New York Times-bestselling Shop Class as Soulcraft, philosopher-mechanic Matthew B. Crawford—a University of Chicago PhD who owned his own motorcycle shop—made a revolutionary case for manual labor, one that ran headlong against the pretentions of white-collar office work. Now, using the driving experience as a window through which to view the broader changes wrought by technology, Crawford investigates the driver’s seat as one of the few remaining domains of human agency, exploration, play—and freedom. 

Blending philosophy and hands-on storytelling, Crawford grounds the narrative in his own experience in the garage and behind the wheel, recounting his decade-long restoration of a vintage Volkswagen as well as his journeys to thriving automotive subcultures across the country. Crawford leads us on an irreverent but deeply considered inquiry into the power of faceless bureaucracies, the importance of questioning mindless rules, and the battle for democratic self-determination against the surveillance capitalists. A meditation on the competence of ordinary people, Why We Drive explores the genius of our everyday practices on the road, the rewards of “folk engineering,” and the existential value of occasionally being scared shitless.

Witty and ingenious throughout, Why We Drive is a rebellious and daring celebration of the irrepressible human spirit.

This rebellious and daring celebration of the irrepressible human spirit is a deep inquiry into what we’re giving up in a world of automation:

• The Humanism of Driving: Go beyond transportation and view the driver’s seat as one of the last domains of skill, exploration, and freedom in our increasingly administered lives.
• A Critique of Surveillance Capitalism: Investigate the “self-driving” future and the battle for self-determination against tech giants seeking to monetize our attention.
• Folk Engineering and Manual Skill: Grounded in the author’s own decade-long restoration of a vintage Volkswagen, this is a profound case for the rewards of hands-on competence.
• Automotive Subcultures: Journey to demolition derbies, desert races, and other thriving communities to understand the irrepressible human spirit at play.

Matthew B. Crawford is the author of Shop Class as Soulcraft and The World Beyond Your Head. He is a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. He earned a PhD in Political Philosophy from the University of Chicago, specializing in ancient political thought; he majored in physics as an undergraduate at UC Santa Barbara. Crawford has been working on cars since the age of fifteen and currently drives a 1970 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia.