The Essential Book of Pickup Trucks
Bison Books · Paperback · May 1, 2025
Of the sixty million pickups on U.S. highways today, just one in eight was bought for work purposes.
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- Who it’s for
- A memoir tracing pickups through Haefele’s life, work, and American culture.
- Themes
- Pickup trucks in American culture, Masculinity and motor culture, Tree climbing and academia
- Genres
- Personal Memoirs, Trucks & Heavy Vehicles
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Of the sixty million pickups on U.S. highways today, just one in eight was bought for work purposes. The remaining fifty-four million are what truck dealers call “lifestyle purchases.” Does the pickup impulse spring from some deep, organic longing? For agrarian roots, for simpler times, for a driving experience larger than life? The Essential Book of Pickup Trucks is a memoir about the complex role pickups have played in Fred Haefele’s life and in American culture at large.
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Growing up near the GM truck plant in Flint, Michigan, young Haefele was delighted by these centaur-like vehicles. In his adult life as an arborist, teacher, and father, pickups bore him through hard times and disaster, high adventure, triumph, and love. Through his tenure with twelve trucks, Haefele recounts his experiences with tree climbing and academia, masculinity and motor culture. For Haefele, pickup trucks hold a unique place in the American psyche—equal parts fantasy steed and dray horse, they’re avatars of the American spirit. The Essential Book of Pickup Trucks is, like his trucks, uniquely free-spirited: love story, blue-collar writer’s tale, and motor-head memoir.
Twelve Pickup Trucks
A memoir tracing pickups through Haefele’s life, work, and American culture.
Come here for
- Haefele’s experiences as an arborist, teacher, and father
- Tree climbing, academia, and motor culture
Expect
- A personal account spanning twelve trucks
- Reflections on masculinity and pickups’ place in American culture
Where it sits
| Trucks & Heavy Vehicles | 92% |
|---|---|
| Personal Memoirs | 87% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Biography & Memoir
- Trucks & Heavy Vehicles
- Travel Writing
- Authors
- Fred Haefele
- Publisher
- Bison Books
- Published
- May 1, 2025
- Format
- Paperback
- Theme
- Pickup trucks in American culture · Masculinity and motor culture · Tree climbing and academia
- Reading lane
- Biography & Memoir