Schiffer (anthropology, U. of Arizona) has added an informative new preface to this paperbound reprint of his 1994 history of the electric car; he suggests that despite the Detroit Big Three's reluctance to make and market electric cars, it could be that their time has come. His book delves into the many reasons for the electric car's failure to dominate its gas-guzzling cousins after its auspicious beginnings in the early 1900s reasons that involve sociology, economics, and government policy as well as technology. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)