After reading the book review about “Preproduction Civilian Jeeps” from Jim Allen on Derek Redmond’s CJ-3B site (scroll to mid-page), I decided to purchase the book.  While I’m hesitant about purchasing jeep books, due to the fact that the images are often reprints of images I’ve already seen or that the text isn’t all that informative, Jim’s review intrigued me enough to spur me to action.

Thankfully, I was extremely happy with the book I received.  Frederic Coldwell’s Preproduction Civilian Jeeps manages to avoid the traps I mention above, producing a text that’s rich in information, details and images that are both unique and investigative.   In fact, the book is down right humbling.  I thought I knew jeeps pretty well, but reading this book taught me what I didn’t know about what I didn’t know.

Though each chapter is full of information, I think my favorite chapter was the final one, where Fred reveals how photographs have been altered by marketing staffs during the 40s so that the jeep that’s pictured in the photograph looks more like the Willys being sold to the public.   In some ways it’s a test; by the final chapter, has the reader learned enough to tell what the marketing department did to change the original images and why they did it?

I’m thinking I will paint in white ‘X2008’ on the rear bumper.  Read the book to learn why 🙂