Peter D. Norton (born 1963), often just Peter Norton, is a U.S. historian, academic and author, known for a critical view of societies' relationship with the private car. Norton has written about the history of the car, from a societal U.S. perspective, describing in depth how different groups, like store owners, traffic engineers, the police, pedestrians and newspapers viewed the advent of the car in the early 20th century. He shows that there was considerable resistance to the increasing dominance of cars, not least in the cities. Furthermore he studies which viewpoint they came from. One conclusion is that the automobile industry seem to have won by appealing to freedom, as their prime argument. Norton holds a position as an associate professor at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

. He has received prizes for teaching as well as the

Abbot Payson Usher Prize The Abbot Payson Usher Memorial Prize, established in 1961 and named for Dr Abbott Payson Usher, is an award given annually by Society for the History of Technology for the best scholarly work on the history of technology published during the pre ...

of the

Society for the History of Technology The Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) is the primary professional society for historians of technology. SHOT was founded in 1958 in the United States, and it has since become an international society with members "from some thirty-five ...

for "the best scholarly work published during the preceding three years under the auspices of the Society for the History of Technology". His work has been covered in various articles. The title of the 2021 article in the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

, ''Tech Can’t Fix the Problem of Cars - Flashy new car technology may be exciting, but it might also be distracting us from what we need'', sums up Norton’s general position that cars are useful but that car dependency is dysfunctional and unsustainable. Amongst his most cited writings are: * ''Fighting traffic'': the dawn of the motor age in the American city (2011) * Street rivals: Jaywalking and the invention of the motor age street (2007) in the journal

Technology and Culture ''Technology and Culture'' is a quarterly academic journal founded in 1959. It is an official publication of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), whose members routinely refer to it as "T&C." Besides scholarly articles and critical e ...

In 2021 Norton published the book, ''Autonorama'': The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving. One of the primary messages of the book is this: The current campaign for autonomous cars as the major solution is very similar to earlier campaigns to increase support for a car-based society. For many decades in several waves, the car conglomorate has been selling "the next big thing" as a glorious solution to the public, media and politicians. The current campaign for autonmous cars can be viewed as a continuation of a recognisable strategy.

References

American male writers Urban theorists Historians of transport Living people 1963 births {{Planning-stub