Speed Capital

This book uses the Indianapolis Motor Speedway—built in the early 1900s by several automotive enthusiasts including auto-parts tycoon Carl Graham Fisher—to explore the cultural meanings of automobility in modern America. Auto racing was a means by which Americans learned how to embrace the benefits of cars and well-paved highways. If capitalism is based on the annihilation of space, as Karl Marx once argued, then auto racing was the process by which space annihilation was made legible and consumable. This book takes the story of Indianapolis and its famous speedway from the city’s founding in the early 1800s through the industrial age, the Progressive Era, and into the time of the World Wars and the Great Depression. In the post-World War I era, Indianapolis auto racing became a legendary activity that was as valuable for its ability to annihilate temporal space (between past and present) as it was for its ability to annihilate geographical space (between distant points). By also examining Carl Fisher’s other major ventures, including the Lincoln and Dixie Highways, as well as the development of Miami Beach (Florida), Speedway City (Indiana), and Montauk (New York), this book examines the larger cultural significance of motor sport while also showing how Indianapolis virtually imagined itself as the Crossroads of America, the nation’s central place.