Remember the '69 Lacunas? Probably not, since Lacuna never was an automotive marque (at least to the best of my knowledge). Instead, it's the type of word employed by colleagues in my other profession-the one that pays the bills. In simplest terms, a "lacuna" is a gap or missing part, often used in reference to a manuscript. So, in the context of this column, what are the '69 lacunas? They are the gaps or missing parts in the printed record of automotive history that existed in 1969, the year the Society of Automotive Historians was founded. There were considerable gaps back then. In the generation or so since, we have made considerable progress in filling in those lacunas.

In my first column, I discussed "the road less traveled." In this, my last column as SAH President, I would like to celebrate the distance that we have come. Given the limited space available to me in this column, I have selected seven works to describe from a vast number of works that could have been included. Each was the first book-length investigation in a specific area of automotive history. I have deliberately avoided reference to books written by past and present SAH officers and Board members, so as to avoid cries of favoritism. Fortunately, we have plugged so many gaps in the past 38 years that this did not prove to be a major problem. I am not arguing that the books that follow are the best ones currently in their respective areas. Rather, in my opinion, each was the first significant work in that field, and the book that eliminated one of the lacunas in automotive history. They are presented below alphabetically by title, with a brief explanation of the reason for their inclusion.

(1) Americans on the Road: From Autocamp to Motel, 1910-1945, by Warren James Belasco. (MIT Press, 1979) During the first half of the 20th century, auto-related recreational pursuits mushroomed, creating industries of their own and significant coverage in the mass-circulation magazines of the day. Yet, it was not until Belasco's work that we had a scholarly, book-length study of a key element of vacation motoring.

(2) Auto Mechanics: Technology and Expertise in Twentieth-Century America, by Kevin L. Borg. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007) While we have had numerous studies of automotive unions, and workers "on the line," Borg's book is a pioneering one in that it looks at the changing role and historic experience of the repair shop mechanic, a person we have come to depend upon but cannot seem to trust.

(3) Automobile Age Atlanta: The Making of a Southern Metropolis, 1900-1935, by Howard L. Preston. (University of Georgia Press, 1979) Although comprehensive histories had often noted differences regarding the car's impact on urban, rural, and suburban life, Preston's book was the first to study its influence on metropolitan growth in a single city other than Detroit. As such, it provided direction for later studies on individual cities and broader, geographic regions.

(4) High Performance: The Culture and Technology of Drag Racing, 1950-1990, by Robert C. Post. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994) Despite the popularity of drag racing, both in its informal, street version and on organized tracks, the only available books on that topic up to the mid-nineties were those aimed at the enthusiast market. It was Post's oversized volume that raised this variation of the sport of motor racing to the level of serious inquiry.

(5) In the Driver's Seat: The Automobile in American Literature and Popular Culture, by Cynthia Golomb Dettelbach. (Greenwood Press, 1976) While the early years of motoring produced countless short stories and novels written about automobiles, or in which cars play an integral role in the plot (like The Great Gatsby), it was not until Dettelbach's 1976 small volume that we had a scholarly, book-length, analytical study of the automobile in literature.

(6) Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the Motor Age, by Virginia Scharff (Free Press, 1991) At a time when even the best comprehensive automotive histories lumped men, women, and children together in terms of the car's impact on everyday life, Scharff was the first to tease out the uniqueness of the feminine experience in the early years of motoring. We are still waiting for a similar volume examining children and teenagers.

(7) The Automobile Revolution: The Impact of an Industry, by Jean-Pierre Bardou et al. (University of North Carolina Press, 1982) Moving beyond the single-nation focus of most industrial histories, Bardou and his colleagues created the first multi-national study of the automotive industry, one that was soon to become truly worldwide in its functioning. Thanks to an excellent translation by James M. Laux, one of the co-authors, this book was made widely available to English readers.

Again, these books represent just a sampling of the path-making works that have broadened our knowledge of automotive history during the last four decades. As SAH members, we should all feel pride in the progress we have made and be optimistic regarding what it signifies for the future.

That's all folks. Thanks for reading and responding to this column over the past two years.

- Mike Berger, SAH President