In this lively and accessible volume, Tom Standage recounts the history of transportation from prehistoric wagons to the invention of the electric car. We learn about the curious antipathy towards wheeled vehicles in the medieval era; the moral hysteria surrounding bicycles, which were said to make women infertile; and the recent efforts of cities like Oslo and Helsinki to revive carless spaces. More than just a history of travel, this is an origin story for the modern world—how it was broken, and how it might be recovered.