- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Chronicle Books; Second Impression edition (Jan 15 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0811842487
- ISBN-13: 978-0811842488
- Product Dimensions: 26.4 x 22.2 x 2.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.3 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#201,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #32 in Books > Nonfiction > Automotive > Motorcycles > History
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Stylishly designed with eye-catching page layouts and beautiful images, this history of the "the wasp" will delight any Vespa aficionado. The late Roberto Segoni, professor of industrial design at Florence University, sets the production in line with an introduction that celebrates Italy’s post-WWII design history and situates the Vespa alongside such achievements at the Olivetti typewriter and the Arco lamp. The rest of the book traces the evolution of the motorbike’s signature C-shaped seat, its engine and its worldwide popularity, providing a detailed catalog of Vespas from the first 1946 model to the present. (The book also includes four short essays on Vespas, one of them by New Yorker correspondent Bill Buford.) Early black and white factory photos, flashy color ads and stills from films and commercials break up the text and turn this book into fun coffee-table history. Now that Vespas can be legally imported into the U.S., the number of American Vespa fans is growing, and this volume is clearly formulated to charm them. 1,000+ illustrations.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
From <I>Roman Holiday</I> to <I>Quadrophenia</I>, the Vespa scooter has long been a symbol of youthful independence as well as one of the most recognizable pop culture icons of the 20th century. Immortalized as a design classic, the ever-growing ranks of Vespa dealers and scooter clubs worldwide attest to its enduring popularity at the street level. For the first time, the complete history of this chic mode of transport is celebrated in <I>Vespa: Style in Motion</I>. Fully authorized by and drawn from the archives of its manufacturer, Piaggio, this mighty volume tells the Vespa's story from its birth, right after World War II, to the brand new Granturismo model. <I>Vespa</I> is filled with hundreds of film stills, advertisements, and period photographs, offering a visual homage for any fan of Italian flair. Specifications and diagrams of all 41 scooter models, plus in-depth profiles of 15 classic Vespas, provide a detailed reference for true aficionados. Always in vogue, the Vespa remains the ride of choice for hipsters and internationalists everywhere. This, for them, is the last word.
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First Sentence
Where the tale is told of a shipbuilding company that became a railway engineering company that then became an airplane company, banking on hopes of post-war revival and on an odd-looking vehicle designed by the man who invented the helicopter. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Where the tale is told of a shipbuilding company that became a railway engineering company that then became an airplane company, banking on hopes of post-war revival and on an odd-looking vehicle designed by the man who invented the helicopter. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highway to Heaven for Vespa-holics!!,
By
This review is from: Vespa: Style in Motion (Paperback)
As a confirmed "Vespa-holic" [I currently own an ET-4 which recently replaced my "old" ET-2], this is the BEST coffee table book I have EVER seen on my beloved scooter by Piaggio. Wonderful, documented history. Great photography. This tome oozes quality. Moreover, it is an outstanding price-value at the debut cost which is far below that of some of its lesser predecessors. This is not a mechanic's guide to the repairs or restoration of the Vespa. As the sub-title reads: "style in motion." If you are lucky enough to already possess a Vespa, you will want this book for the center piece of your library. If you are not yet fortunate to be a Vespa owner, get this volume as your guide to the various models before you make your final scooter purchase decision.
1.0 out of 5 stars
WARNING!!!,
By cultfigure (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Vespa: Style in Motion (Paperback)
Contains a fairly comprehensive history of Vespa scooters with some nice pics, and a good overview of the distinguishing characteristics of each model, even the layout is better than average for scooter books BUT ....I JUST BOUGHT THIS BOOK IN ITALY LAST MONTH UNDER A DIIFERENT TITLE AND AUTHOR!!!! If I had known that, I would have rated it more highly because it IS a good book, but as it stands, I'm a little irritated about owning two copies. AND as far as I can tell, Elissa Stein had nothing to do with this book, so Amazon has some highly misleading information posted, especially when you combine it with a re-release of a book that's only a year old, and which already came in an english-language version, with a new cover and title. OOOOh, but I'm pissed...Note, to be fair, no web booksellers I've seen are warning people about this, so I suppose it's understandable that Amazon hasn't had their attention called to it yet, but they ARE the only ones I've seen who misattribute the author...
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.1 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews) 12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highway to Heaven for Vespa-holics!!,
By Karl Sooder - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Vespa: Style in Motion (Paperback)
As a confirmed "Vespa-holic" [I currently own a Vespa Granturismo. Earlier, I have owned both a Vespa ET-4 and a Vespa ET-2], this is the BEST coffee table book I have EVER seen on my beloved scooter family by Piaggio. Wonderful, documented history. Great photography. This tome oozes quality. Moreover, it is an outstanding price-value at the debut cost which is far below that of some of its lesser predecessors. This is not a mechanic's guide to the repairs or restoration of the Vespa. As the sub-title reads: "style in motion." If you are lucky enough to already possess a Vespa, you will want this book for the center piece of your library. If you are not yet fortunate to be a Vespa owner, this volume is a "must have" as your shopping guide to the various models before you make your final scooter purchase decision. Happy Scootering!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Value, but...,
By Thomas Judd - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Vespa: Style in Motion (Paperback)
I've never written a review for Amazon before, but after buying this book and reading it cover to cover, I felt compelled to air my criticisms somewhere. Overall, I thought that it is one of the best books on the subject.Being a Vespa owner, I was really impressed with the technical content and COLOR photos. It's the essays and figure captions that irritated me. The figure captions were frequently so vague that I couldn't tell which picture they were referring to, which is a problem because they are not co-located with the picture. Also, many of the essays were really hard to understand, frequently too short (when they were interesting) or too long (when they were boring) and presumed a lot of knowledge of Italian 20th century history. So, I failed to get the point of many of them. Believe me, I read these articles very closely trying very hard to get the author's point, but many of them were written in an artsy style, which was almost incomprehensible at times. So, it could be very frustrating to read. I can only conclude that they were translated from Italian and something was lost along the way. All that being said, I still think it is worth the price for the photos and technical articles. 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book worthy of its subject,
By Daniel Attila "Daniel Attila" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Vespa: Style in Motion (Paperback)
I rarely give 5 stars to a product, but this one is flawless. I bought this book to learn about the various vintages of Vespa so I could make an informed choice when buying one. Given the beauty of this scooter, I wanted a book of similar quality, and I was not disappointed.This book has explained everything about the company and its products together with their long history of excellence in an easy to read, beautifully laid out volume. I now know which Vespa I want: ALL OF THEM! |
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