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. 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.

- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
The Essential Book of Pickup Trucks
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Working-Class Hero
- 2. Prodigal Dude
- 3. Full Moon Solstice
- 4. Turning Pro
- 5. The Big One
- 6. The Lessons of Light Bulb
- 7. Vintage Natal
- 8. Aging Out
- 9. Arbor Emeritus
- 10. The High Ropes
- 11. Patina
- 12. Last Pickup
- About Fred Haefele
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Yes, you can access The Essential Book of Pickup Trucks by Fred Haefele in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.