Phil Patton

Phil Patton is a writer and a journalist who primarily writes about automobiles. He is a contributing editor at Departures and Esquire magazines, and writes on automobile design for The New York Times, serves as a consulting curator, and published Bug: The Strange Mutations Of The World's Most Famous Automobile, in 2004.

Articles by this Author

The Car of the Year (and A Half), October 2006 | Vol. 57, No. 5

The Ford Mustang changed the industry when its creator realized “people want economy so badly they don’t care what they pay for it”

The Cost Of Living, October 2006 | Vol. 57, No. 5

What we spent to get through 1964

The 50 Biggest Changes In The Last 50 Years, October 2004 | Vol. 55, No. 5

Innovation

Highway, October 2002 | Vol. 53, No. 5

The Evolution Of Your Office, June 2001 | Vol. 52, No. 4

Hidden agreements have made all business workplaces remarkably similar.

Visiting The Cold War Today, September 2000 | Vol. 51, No. 5

From Berlin to Washington to Area 51, landmarks of the era are opening up to tourists.

Roadside Architecture, May/June 2000 | Vol. 51, No. 3

Lee Defeats Grant, September 1999 | Vol. 50, No. 5

IN THE WORLD OF ALTERNATE HISTORY, IT ALL CAME OUT DIFFERENTLY—AND IN AN ERA WHEN REAL HISTORY IS TAKING SOME VERY STRANGE TURNS, THE GENRE IS FLOURISHING AS NEVER BEFORE

Invention, May/June 1999 | Vol. 50, No. 3

Dr. Strangelove’s Children, November 1998 | Vol. 49, No. 7

Growing up on a Cold War air base in the shadow of the big one

Designer of the American Dream, November 1996 | Vol. 47, No. 7

Bill Mitchell’s imaginings brought you the cars of Detroit’s ultimate classic era

Agents Of Change, December 1994 | Vol. 45, No. 8

You’ve probably never heard of them, but these ten people changed your life. Each of them is a big reason why your world today is so different from anyone’s world in 1954

Mammy Her Life And Times, September 1993 | Vol. 44, No. 5

BORN IN SLAVERY AND RAISED IN ITS PAINFUL AFTERMATH TO BECOME ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL AMERICAN ICONS, SHE HAS BEEN MADE TO ENCOMPASS LOVE AND GUILT AND RIDICULE AND WORSHIP —AND STILL SHE LIVES ON

The Polaroid Sx-70, November 1992 | Vol. 43, No. 7

Made in U.S.A., April 1992 | Vol. 43, No. 2

The Secret Histories of the Things That Made America

"WEB ONLY STORIES" BY THIS CONTRIBUTOR

50/50: The 50 Biggest Changes of The Last 50 Years

Innovation With American Heritage approaching its fiftieth birthday in December 2004, we asked five leading historians and cultural commentators to each pick 10 leading developments in American life in the last half-century. In this fifth installment, Phil Patton—whose books include Made in USA:…

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