Jason Fagone has written about science, sports, and culture for GQ, Wired, the Atlantic, New York, Grantland, Mother Jones, the New York Times magazine, and The Best American Sports Writing. He is the author of Horsemen of the Esophagus, about competitive eaters, and is the recipient of a Knight-Wallace Fellowship in journalism. He lives outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with his wife and daughter. Tom Voelk, an Emmy Award-winning automotive writer, produces the Driven car review video series for the New York Times.
"Just when you thought America's can-doism is in decline, along
comes Jason Fagone's Ingenious, proving the tinker-bench
spirit is still alive and well. Jumping between Illinois,
California, and Pennsylvania, this book is a love song to our great
country."
--Douglas Brinkley, author of Wheels for the World: Henry
Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress and Rightful
Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America
"Ingenious is a wonderful, original book that will stay in
my mind for a long time...It is a remarkable study of the human
drive to make things, to create, and why the impulse we usually
celebrate in artistic or intellectual realms can be as glorious
when it comes to the creation of beautifully engineered
machines."
--James Fallows, national correspondent, The
Atlantic; author of Breaking the News
"Compelling...Jason Fagone tells the story of eccentric American
inventors committing their lives, design skills, and savings to a
common dream--a smarter, cooler transportation future."
--Chris Paine, writer/director of Who Killed the Electric
Car? and Revenge of the Electric Car
"Fagone's reporting is as personal as it is scientific, and he
spends as much time getting a sense for the inventors as for the
invented. His focus, we come to see, is less about the relationship
between piston and crankshaft and more about father and son,
teacher and teen, rival and rival...Although there is plenty here
to interest those who spend their weekends tinkering under their
car in an oil-stained driveway, the book is at its core a story of
Lindbergh-esque triumph of man over machine."
--The Miami Herald
"A paean to the long-lost American art of invention,
Ingenious is a story that has all the built-in drama of the
best fiction. It's driven by characters that are, by turns, whip
smart and wide-eyed and desperate, and a plot to achieve a
seemingly unobtainable goal...Fagone does an impeccable job of
conveying the angst of teams that had literally put everything on
the line - their livelihoods, their marriages, their financial,
emotional and physical well-being...A thought-provoking book that
will appeal to automotive efficiency geeks and readers who long for
America's can-do past."
--The Orange County Register
"The real story Ingenious tells is about the deep strain of
hope, fortified with elbow grease, in the American character. Jason
Fagone is a generous, clear-eyed writer, and this is an
exhilarating, beautifully engineered book."
--Benjamin Wallace, author of The Billionaire's Vinegar:
The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
"The most accurate term, the literary term, for Jason Fagone's new
book is awesome. It's also fabulous, in both senses of the word,
for the cars and creators of Ingenious work in grand and
fantastical realms of the imagination. Only for the time being,
though. Read this splendidly wrought book now for that rarest of
views, a genuinely hopeful glimpse of things to come."
--Jeff Sharlet, author of Sweet Heaven When I Die and
The Family
"Precious few books have ever captured the soul of human creativity
as perfectly as Jason Fagone's Ingenious. This beautifully
rendered tale of engineering wizardry, set amid a mad scramble for
fame and fortune, is a testament to both America's vast promise and
our species' knack for perseverance. If you have ever dreamed of
building something--or simply dreamed at all--this is a book you
cannot miss."
--Brendan I. Koerner, author of The Skies Belong to Us:
Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking
"Wow, what an adventure. It's the spellbinding tale of a race
between rich dreamers and barnyard tinkerers and inner-city
teenagers who are all out to create a car that could change the
world and win a fortune. I love Ingenious because it's
bursting with villains, heroes, and the magic of ingenuity brought
to life by determination."
--Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run: A Hidden
Tribe, Super-Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never
Seen
"A must-read for every gearhead and tinkerer who dares to dream
beyond the garage. Ingenious shows us that America remains a
place of bold innovators willing to risk everything for the glory
of progress, fame, and a little loot--the same prize that's pushed
our nation forward since the Mayflower."
--Bryan Mealer, coauthor of The Boy Who Harnessed the
Wind
"A well-told tale of invention, tribulation, and, yes, ingenuity.
Car and green enthusiasts alike, from high school nerds to old-time
readers of Popular Mechanics, will find this a ripping good
tale."
--Library Journal
"Anyone interested in how automobile dreams are born in this
postbailout economy will delight in this fast, engaging read."
--Publishers Weekly
"An entertaining book that offers insight and inspiration for a
wide range of [readers] who could be thinking about inventing
'something that matters.'"
--Booklist
"Journalist Fagone...smelled a good story, and he makes the most of
it here. Fagone is not above raising an eyebrow at some of the
loopiness that went on, but he never falls short of conveying the
energy and spirit of the enterprises. Along the way, readers will
pick up plenty of inside information on regenerative brakes,
chromoly steel and how to reinvent the common lug nut to shave a
pound off the car's weight...Fagone succeeds in making his subjects
entirely relatable...A well-tooled, instructive tale of
ingenuity."
--Kirkus Reviews
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