The Race to the Future: 8,000 Miles to Paris―The Adventure That Accelerated the Twentieth Century

by Kassia St. Clair

The rise of the automobile as told through its Rubicon moment—a sensational, high-risk race across two continents on the verge of revolution.

The racers—an Italian prince and his chauffeur, a French racing driver, a con man, and several rival journalists—battle over steep inclines, through narrow mountain passages, and across the arid Gobi Desert. Competitors endure torrential rain and choking dust. There are barely any roads, and petrol is almost impossible to find. A global audience of millions follows each twist and turn, devouring reports telegraphed from the course.

More than its many adventures, the Peking-to-Paris Motor Challenge took place on the precipice of a new world. As the twentieth century dawned, imperial regimes in China and Russia were crumbling, paving the way for the rise of communist ones. The electric telegraph was rapidly transforming modern communication, and with it, the news media, commerce, and politics. Suspended between the old and the new, the Peking-to-Paris, as best-selling historian Kassia St. Clair writes, became a critical tipping point.

A gripping, immersive narrative of the race, The Race to the Future sets the drivers’ derring-do (and occasional cheating) against the backdrop of a larger geopolitical and technological race to the future. Interweaving events from the fall of the Qing dynasty to the departure of the horse economy and the rise of gendered marketing, St. Clair shows how the Peking-to-Paris provided an impetus for profound social, cultural, and industrial change, while masterfully capturing the mounting tensions between nations and empires—all building up to the cataclysmic event that changed everything: the First World War.

“Consistently mind-boggling, often funny, and occasionally hair-raising” (Philip Ball), The Race to the Future is the incredible true story of the quest against the odds that propelled us along the road to modernity.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Travel, Audiobook, Sports, Cars, 20th Century

384 pages, Hardcover

First published May 14, 2024

About the author

Kassia St Clair received a first in History from Bristol University and went on to study English women's dress and the masquerade during the eighteenth century at Oxford, where she received a distinction.
She is a journalist and author who has written about design and culture for publications including the Economist, Elle, and the Times Literary Supplement.
She lives in London.

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

The history of the Peking-Paris race of 1907 has been periodically chronicled since its completion, to varying degrees of accuracy. The author gives it a new treatment with some new information about lingering mysteries and quite a bit of context on geopolitics and automotive history. The chapters on the race itself are compelling, with descriptions of the participants, the route, and the logistics involved being colorful and detailed. The interspersed chapters on topics ranging from Russian tsars to speed limits, are similarly detailed and interesting, but break the momentum of the narrative so that the book occasionally drags (the author herself says in the preface to skip these until later if you just want to follow the race). In the end, the book sets up an uneasy push-pull between the exhilerating modernism of the turn of the century and the profoundly destructive effects it had on the 20th century and, of course, today (environmental harm, car-centric development, mechanized warfare, etc - extrapolate to whatever social ills you can think of). In the end, while the race concludes with acclaimed heroism, the reader is left to wonder that not enough people saw through its utopian promises.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The Race to the Future, journalist Kassia St. Clair re-envisions the classic 1907 Peking-to-Paris automobile race through both a contemporaneous and modern lens, interspersing the narrative of the race with vignettes about how automobiles were perceived at the time (they were on the cusp of "Crossing the Chasm" as Edward Moore would say), historical context in the countries traversed, and modern-day perspectives from an automobile-oversaturated world in the wake of climate change. Quite an ambitious scope -- and St. Clair also mentions in the introduction that she had her partner wanted to retrace the Peking to Paris journey themselves, but their plans were canceled in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The 1907 race itself is fascinating, with five teams in rudimentary automobiles (by today's standards) setting off from Peking (now Beijing), China on June 10 and the winning team (the only Italian entry, including an Italian prince-adventurer, Scipione Borghese) arriving over 9300 miles later in Paris, France only two months later on August 10, crossing much of modern-day China, Mongolia (including the Gobi desert), Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, and France today on a Northern route. Especially commendable as you realize that roads were also very rudimentary and hazardous (by today's standards) at the time. It's also fascinating to learn about how many similar races and competitions there were in this era, as many technologies we take for granted today were in their infancies and daredevil spirits with disposable incomes and low attachment to their own mortalities sought out these adventures (see further reading below).

There have been many prior books published about this race, including a contemporaneous account by fellow Italian Luigi Barzini, 1907's Peking to Paris. While I appreciated what St. Clair was trying to do here, I did find myself losing interest the more tangential the book became - as others have mentioned, these tangents do dampen the sense of suspense and adventure one would expect.

Further reading:
The Great Air Race: Glory, Tragedy, and the Dawn of American Aviation by John Lancaster - about the transcontinental air race of 1919
Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World by Matthew Goodman - about the 1889 circumnavigation competition between two journalists, inspired by Jules Verne's 1871 fictional work Around the World in Eighty Days

My statistics:
Book 127 for 2025
Book 2053 cumulatively

[Gerbrand · Rating 3 out of 5]

255 De Nederlandse krant Het Nieuws van den Dag meldde dat ‘de heer Spijker zelf ons heeft verteld dat Godard een ongelooflijk sluw man is die door te liegen een auto heeft meegekregen’.

Het is 1907 en de Franse krant Le Matin heeft een race georganiseerd van Peking naar Parijs. Een publiciteitsstunt. Het aantal deelnemers blijft beperkt tot 5. Waaronder een Spyker met als chauffeur de charlatan Charles Godard. De Nederlandse fabriek had in 1903 de naam al veranderd van Spijker in Spyker met het oog op de export.

Stel je voor een rit van ongeveer 14,000 kilometer. Door Siberie. Door de Gobiwoestijn. Een Spyker had 15pk. De sterkste auto, een Itala, had 40pk. Op de eerste racedag raakten sommige deelnemers in Peking al de weg kwijt…

Over de race zijn al een aantal boeken verschenen onder andere van de hand van meereizende journalisten destijds. Niet altijd even objectief en betrouwbaar begrijp ik uit dit verhaal van Kassia St Clair. In alternerende hoofdstukken verslaat ze de race en diverse aspecten van mobiliteit begin 1900. Bijvoorbeeld over veiligheid, paarden en olie. Maar ook een hoofdstuk over communicatie (telegrafie), de politieke situatie in China en Rusland in die tijd.

Op het internet zijn aardig wat foto’s te vinden van deze race. Ook in het boek staan er een aantal maar naar mijn mening te weinig voor een non-fictie verhaal.

Ik zou zeggen een aanrader voor als het onderwerp je interesseert.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love cars. And I love history. I also love history about cars. Add in auto racing and, at first glance of that amazing cover, The Race to the Future had everything that I would have thought would have made a truly excellent non fiction book about some of my favorite subjects.

Sadly, that wasn’t the case with this one, leading to a book that ended up being more disappointing than anything.

It’s far from a terrible work of non-fiction. In fact, St. Claire does an admirable job telling the story of one of the first true endurance auto-races, and interweaves some great chapters on automotive history, yet the story she does attempt to tell just never really managed to grab me or keep me interested.

After the half way mark, I never felt excited or eager to pick up this book and discover what happened to all the participants of the Peking-Paris rally. Whether it was the antique cars and European names of the drivers, or just a general lack of interesting writing, Race to Future’s main historical story was a bit of slog. Erik Larson, this most assuredly is not.

However that is not the case for the various vignettes and separating chapters that make up the other part of this book. I found these far more fascinating and fun. There are a multitude of different facts and moments from the invention of the car and even European history, but for me it was the chapters on the invention of speed limits, the history of cars and women, and the use of automobiles in the First World War, that truly held my interest and actually saved this book from being a total bore.

Had this been just a book on historical events about the automobile, this could have been a decent read. Though, that’s not to say it’s “bad”. It’s well researched and you can tell St. Claire really enjoyed her time researching and writing it. I just wish it would have been a tad more thrilling.

[Elsbeth Kwant]

A swashbuckling story, involving cars and men.- 5 teams competing in a race that seemed utopian in 1907 - by car from Peking to Paris. A time of change and nationalism. The race had near shaves with death, one team stranded with heat stroke in the Gobi desert, another diving through a ramshackle wooden bridge. They were veiled 'like a village matron at a funeral. wending their way through interminable forests', at one point scaring a wolf. The race is interspersed with different aspects of car development (including marketing electric cars for women, and people prioritising cars over indoor plumbing because you can't go to town in a bathtub).
An exhilarating read! Got goosebumps at the epilogue. The Borgheses here have a claim to fame!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the madness of the journey they undertook. But what i loved most was the history of the transformation from horses (and streetcars and trains and electric vehicles) to cars. The race was part of the push (marketing) of what remains a terrible (consumptive, addictive, polluting, dangerous, unreliable) technology. There was also the pull, our romanticism (the same that drew me to read this book) for the “freedom” of the road.

We really should kick our habit for these things. They’re killing us.

[Timothy Grubbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Driving at a furious speed into progress…for better and worse…

The Race to the Future: The Adventure that Accelerated the Twentieth Century by Kassia St. Clair is a little bit Wacky Races, a little bit Speed Racer, but over all just some good automotive competition…

1907 is a funny year since automobiles were still fairly “new” to the public.

Thankfully there are several chapters that cover the changing period of 1907 (both before and after) and what role cars played in it.

The main story details an automobile race between five teams (well technically four since one is eliminated pretty early) from Peking, China to Paris, France. Techncially it’s 8000 miles but that’s very different when there are rigorous unpacked roads and you made be hundreds of kilometers from the next source of parts or petrol (that’s what they called gas back then, kids).

It’s a wonderful story with conmen, rogues, princes, politicians, and many others…

The back matter with footnotes, index, and other stuff is helpful for those interested in further research…

Highly recommend…

[Megan (inkand.imagination) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so interesting! I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. It’s not what I usually read, but it kept me engaged and very interested throughout the whole book. There were a couple of slow parts, but overall this one was a really good read.

I highly recommended it! Especially to fans of the show The Grand Tour, or anyone who wants to know a little more about automotive history and the pioneers who made cars what we know them to be today!

[Aurora · Rating 4 out of 5]

After enjoying her book on color, I had been hoping for a similarly enjoyable listening experience—and while I didn’t love this one as much as that, it is pretty good! It was interesting hearing about the early race interspersed with other interesting tidbits about anything & everything related to it, aha. And her voice is very pleasant to listen to.

[Jacob Snyder · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5

[Vansa · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1907, under the auspices of Le Matin, a challenge was announced, to show off a new novelty-the
motorcar. While this sounds like one of those quirky early 20th Century ideas, it was to prove seminal in completely unconnected ways. 1907 was pretty much one of the last few years when the automobile was a novelty.. This race was one of the last few attempts by the Old World to retain power over industrial supremacy, and a last gasp of the West’s ideas about an Enlightenment continuum and a spreading European ideal-in a decade, all these would be overturned by WWI and the breakdown of centuries old empires. Apart from the broader political changes, it was the final year when Europe, and France in particular, could claim supremacy in automobiles manufacture; -within a year the first Model T would roll off a line. The Peking-Paris Challenge was mooted against this backdrop. What would their route be like? The route from Peking to Moscow would follow tracks formed by donkeys, carts, people on foot. In some stretches, vehicles would need to be lifted over obstructions, and roads would need to be dug out using pickaxes and shovels. Large parts of their journey would be through remote, sparsely populated geographies. Accidents could prove fatal. Fuel would be sent out in advance and stored in strategic locations, with the hope that it would not be pilfered. The excitement owes to this being the news age- Newspapers loved it, and delighted in spinning it as Western civilisation over Eastern barbarism, heralding the advent of technology and a new world. The telegraph, was crucial to tracking the progress of the race, and it shaped its route: telegraph offices, wires poles-physical structures of communication helped shape the route and transmitted news around world. While China was a source of luxury goods, the country was viewed with contempt. The Qing dynasty was in crisis and would fall 4 years after this race, ending more than 2 millennia of imperial rule. The Russian Empire was also in turmoil, and had been ruled by the same dynasty since the 17th Century. The Empire was reeling after the 1905 revolution and their defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. While concessions had been made to a restive populace, arson, murder and armed robbery were daily occurrences. A coup had been foiled ( partially) merely 2 days before the race was to commence. From the late 19th Century, empires were scrambling to cling on to power. Technological developments like the railways and telegraph helped with control but holding on to multi-ethnic empires was creating problems at a time of burgeoning nationalism and identity politics. Rulers engaged in diplomatic wrangling and negotiations, all of which were to culminate in WWI.
And now to those magnificent men in their driving machines. The pace of change in automobiles feels quite rapid: The first automobile patent was taken out by Karl Benz in 1886, and the horsepower offered by his contraption was lower than what you would find from a modern hairdryer . The Economist, as late as 1904, was writing that horses were more useful when it came to locomotion. In 1900, there were 3 million horses in major American cities, making their presence felt, through industrial quantities of manure with the attendant odours and providing breeding grounds for flies (16 billion of them in one year in New York) . More accidents were caused in New York by horse-drawn carriages than motor vehicles would later cause. Despite all this, in 1907, it still seemed outlandish that horses could be replaced. Firstly there was the question of livelihoods-an entire economy had come up around horses as a mode of transport, apart from the drivers, there were stables, grooms, ostlers-basically all the cheery Cockney, usually thieving characters in Geogette Heyer books. An entirely new sort of road would need to be built, which investors were wary about after decades of nearly ruinous investment in railways. The cars weren’t too inspiring: jolting contraptions of rubber, leather, wood, canvas and in this race, would be subjected to water and extremes of temperature. The drivers would have to perform all repairs themselves. If the car failed, they would have to telegraph the manufacturer and hope that parts would reach them by train or they could find some on the way. Apart from the backdrop of crumbling empires and technological change, the cast of characters was interesting in its right. The intrepid participants in
the race were an Italian prince (Scipione Borghese) and his chauffeur (Guizzardi) in their Itala ( a familyrun business foundational to the Italian automobile industry, with their inventions being the first FIAT, having sold their patents) , a conman (Charles Godard) in a Spyker with his Dutch mechanic, Jean du Tallis, and 2 French DeDIon-Boutons, one driven by a former French racing driver. Each car also had another passenger-embedded journalists who would write during the night and telegraph their accounts from each telegraph office. The stage being set, we get to race day, and a vivid description of the start of the race- the banners of multiple countries, and a large, though mostly European crowd. The most memorable part of this scene though, is a sound never heard in the city of Peking before, the throbbing basso profundo of car engines.
The race was a collaboration of all the modern technology available, and not just automotive. Without the hype machine of the telegraph, it would have been like a tree falling in a big forest with nobody to hear it. While the telegraph was developed in the late 18th Century, it didn’t see widespread adoption because nobody could really find a practical application for it ( baffling for us, I know, when we’re used to instant responses for communications relating to your daily shop to your dad’s angiogram result). This changed when a murderer in Slough was apprehended when his description was telegraphed along station lines. Faster transport and communications, the rotary printing press, typesetting, literacy rates and most importantly, the media -all depended on the timely delivery of news. Peking-Paris capitalized on a perfect conjunction of factors: some news stories were more popular than others, with explorations topping the list. While the telegraph was revolutionary, technology is only as effective as the users, leading to some comical instances of the new world having to give way to the old: a Chinese clerk smoking opium in one of the telegraph offices didn’t send the timed report. Journalists in China wrote dispatches in columns because lines of joined up writing look different and hence incomprehensible to the Chinese. In Russia, one telegraph clerk refused to send the report because it was in Italian, which was a foreign language and nobody understood Italian in Russia! There are evocative descriptions of the towns thy make pitstops at-Kalgan, a wealthy trading town that’s China’s northern gateway, Omsk, the intellectual capital of Siberia among others. Though the race was sponsored by a French newspaper and there were 2 French cars, there wasn’t much compatriot feeling among them. One of the De Dion-Boutons ran out of fuel miles from the nearest fuelling station, without any back-up fuel. Their compatriots drove past them. The temperatures were 50 degrees, their extreme thirst and disdain for the local Mongol camps led them to try to walk to the nearest town. This was obviously a crazy idea, and a Mongol caravan took pity on them and took them to Kalgan. Their race was over but what seemed to rankle more was that “savage tribesmen” helped them, while their compatriots abandoned them in the desert.
Le Matin expected this race to be a showcase of French automotive superiority, but the Itala was
performing much better, despite some hairy episodes where the car caught fire during the blazing
summer of the Steppe, and they had to use some of their precious water to prevent the mostly wooden vehicle from combusting. Omsk, their destination was a large modern city, and had 3 large hotels. After this, though, the journalist from Corriere della Serra, Barzini , described the landscape as changing to a featureless sea of green. The media coverage of the race hadn’t died down-far from it, it was now being reported in glowing terms of cars as tools of freedom and escape, and their pieces bathed motorists in a golden glow of heroism and acclaim. The manufacturers were written of as advancing human progress into a glorious future. I found that interesting, because most car advertisements, to this day, depict the drivers of the car as intrepid explorers performing feats of great derring-do:fording rivers, driving up mountains and so on, when the majority of vehicles bought (including SUVs) spend most of their time doing the weekly shop, the school run, and the daily commute to work. The race participants were genuinely performing those advertised feats though: Borghese would drive into day and night-possibly Guizziardi was doing a lot of it. They would barely rest, and in the night, any rest stop would involve tracking down a cache of fuel, while the mechanic GUizzardi would check the car, and Barzini the journalist would write and send reports. When it rained,apart from the above activities, they would also have to shovel mud from the wheels.
What led to people dumping Black Beauty and going off in the Tin Lizzie? You can trace it to the summer of 1859-Edwin Drake was sent to Titusville, Pennsylvania, to find oil by the Seneca Oil Company. They knew there was oil in the area, that could be a substitute for whale oil- it seeped out through pools in rocks, and was collected in jars and containers. Edwin Drake’s idea was to find America’s first commercial oil well and his way of oil drilling is still the basic way its’s done. It wasn’t easy, and as time went on, Seneca Oil stopped paying. Drake took out a 500 dollar personal loan, and on that fateful day in 1859, his customized drill fell into a crevice and work had to be stopped while they figured out what to do. When they returned, oil was bubbling to the surface, and probably in scenes that resembled Giant, everyone ran around collecting it in everything they could lay their hands on-including emptying out every single whiskey barrel in Titusville. The oil boom in America had begun. Prospectors known as wildcats came to Pennsylvania, peopling it with shanty towns with suitably evocative names: Red-Hot being one of them! Now you had discovered this new fuel, but you needed a sufficiently wide variety of applications for it, to offset the costs of the complex and hugely expensive process of exploration and extraction. Oilcos like Standard Oil and Royal Dutch excelled at developing new markets ( remember, horses were still your primary mode of transport) with Standard Oil “lighting up China”, by flooding it with kerosene lamps-by the first decade of the 20th Century, these lamps ( fuelled by Standard Oil, of course), were default lighting for half a billion people. The Tsar encouraged development in Baku, where oil deposits were known to exist, and very soon, the Swedish Nobel brothers were drawing 10% of the world’s oil, and within a few years, Russian oil accounted for 50 percent of the world’s oil. This was still a time, however, when oil was not the default fuel for transportation. Different fuels had different useselectricity for short personal journeys, or from railway depots to warehouses, steam for heavy haulage, and petrol was only for long distance touring. The oil boom also concomitantly led to the perils of over reliance on oil being debated. Electricity was still a marvellous new invention, with the assumption being
that it could power the world. The journal Scientific American called electric cars reliable, clean and nonpolluting with their “clean” fuel. Electric vehicles were favoured in urban environments, and accounted for a third of urban vehicles in American cities in the early 20th Century. However, the vehicles were slower and felt less adventurous and were marketed to women. Henry Ford’s wife, Clara, drove an electric car made by Detroit Electric in the same year the Model T was rolling off assembly lines. While some scholarship points at gendered marketing being one of the problems preventing the widespread use of electric cars, batteries were another. Edison was involved in research towards more efficient batteries and renewable sources of energy. In 1900, most scientists doubted inexhaustible reserves of oil and showed there was still a reluctance to commit to petrol as the fuel for cars. Two things changed this-the automotive world centre shifted to America, with its plentiful oil ( and aggressive oilcos), from Europe. 1908 saw the release of the Model T, and the New York-Paris race. While most of the cars were French, the race winner was the sole American team. The second, and as material a reason was WWI. When it started, the preferred modes of transport were animals and railways, Allied armies by 1917 were using 1 million tons of petrol, and the Navies were using 8 million tons of heavy oil. St.Clair invites you to ponder this fascinating historical singularity-what if multiple technologies to fuel cars were pursued after 1907. It would be entirely possible that electricity powered cities by now, and other fuels like hydrogen, being researched now, might have been financially viable decades earlier.
IN the race itself, the Itala had reached the Volga, that mighty river of the Steppe, a sight that awed all 3 of them. They were taken across the river in a ferry, and drove on to Moscow-where they were given a raucous reception by the automobile club. They had such a lead that they took a side trip to
St.Petersburg for a reception there, and returned to resume the race, moving ever closer to their
destination.
How did human beings respond to all these machines suddenly on their roads? In 1905, Melies, in a very telling little film, imagined the Belgian monarch as an archetypal patrician driver zipping across places, who knocks over things all the time, only to ignore that, and continue to be greeted by millionaires. A Vanderbilt scion was nearly lynched in 1906 in Pisa after running down a child. During the Peking-Paris race, luckily, no accidents harmed people but there were possibly many instances of overturning of horse drawn carts. People were just not used to the speed of vehicles-something I observe till today while I’m driving, when pedestrians seem to think that they can continue to stride purposefully under the delusion than muscles and bones can overtake an internal combustion engine.. Manufacturers and motorists were resolutely against any regulations, that they viewed as infringing on their rights, from when manufacture started. Speed limits and seatbelts were proposed and implemented, only after a lot of protests by car companies. These attitudes, and the lack of laws or regulations governing motorists, had the unfortunate consequence that in 4 years following Armistice Day, more Americans had been killed by cars than by WWI in France. The situation now is that 90 percent of fatal car accidents occur in lower income countries-something that seems very believable anecdotally, given the complete lack of any road rules that’s only worsening.
It’s nearing the end of the race, and since people have been kept up to date by telegraph, they know
where the cars are, and when the Itala is expected to come rolling into Paris. It did, cheered on by
crowds, but a few days later, the Spyker did too-in the 1960s, the mechanic revealed that he had lied under duress and they had completed the journey by train. It had taken 2 months for Borghese,
Guizzardi and Barzoni to complete their arduous journey across desert, steppe, river and city, when they finally reached Paris. They crossed the finish line, and Borghese reached over to switch off the engine, shutting off the noise of the engine that had been the daily background noise for a major part of the day, over the last 2 months. All 3 men didn’t move for a while, stunned by the sudden dramatic change of not living with the race from that day on! The world was going to face dramatic changes though, and this vivid book gives you a wonderful sense of context and time, while not taking away from the excitement of cross-country car race.

[Patten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kassia St. Clair's The Race to the Future, the story of the 1907 Peking-Paris "road" rally, suffers from the same sort of pacing issues that the race itself seemed to. Part of the book's struggle is the choice of subject matter. The rally, which took place before the existence of roads in many portions of the course, wasn't close. I don't think it's really a spoiler when this is a historic event: the race was a wire-to-wire win with a margin of victory of several thousand miles. It wasn't close and it wasn't in doubt.

St. Clair, therefore, is left with a race narrative that isn't exactly extremely intriguing. There's a bit of a survival element to the book, but in terms of actual suspense, there is none. Where the book suffers more, in my opinion, are the interceding chapters. Every other chapter, St. Clair tries to conceptualize the race in different manners. Some chapters (and certainly the more interesting chapters) give accounts of the historic and political situations of the portions of the world the rally runs through. The race started in China on the heels of the Boxer Rebellion, ran through Russia merely a decade before the October Revolution, drove through Germany into France on suspiciously wide and well-maintained roads. The chapters that touch on these items are certainly interesting. However, there are other chapters that try to contextualize portions of the race in modern terms which just drag. It's never a good thing when I start hoping for a book to end.

The book is well-researched, filled with an abundance of interesting footnotes. But at the same time, it's just not gripping. There are really only three cars in the race (one drops out on one of the first days, one disappears and reappears suspiciously later but still thousands of miles behind the winner) and no suspense. As an academic work, it's solid. As an entertaining one, not so much.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It’s about a lot more than just the race. The book does cover the major legs of the race in just the right amount of detail so that it builds excitement but never gets mired in too much detail. But alternating with these chapters are chapters that look at the broader scope of events such as the relevant history of China and Russia, of telegraphy and of the role of women. Very handily, there are great maps at the front of the book and an overview of the cars and their crews. I am not a fan of car racing but this book was about so much more and it was definitely worth the read. Thank you to Netgalley and Liveright for the digital advance reader copy.

[Alexander Vreede · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een zeer onderhoudend boek over een ‘autorace’ van Peking naar Parijs in 1907 waaraan door 5 auto’s werd deelgenomen. Goed geschreven en idem vertaald en met een sterke opbouw: de hoofdstukken over het verloop van de race worden afgewisseld met meer algemene en zeer lezenswaardige hoofdstukken over o.a. China en Rusland, de ontwikkeling van de auto en diens dominante positie in onze samenleving en over vrouwen en de automobiel. De karakters en hebbelijkheden van de coureurs in de 5 deelnemende automobielen worden mooi geschetst. Ik heb er van genoten

[Wilma Hartman · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Een boeiende geschiedenis van een schijnbaar onmogelijke reis’ Zo wordt Van Peking tot Parijs aangeprezen. Kassia St. Clair is volgens Literary Review een bekwame onderzoeker en een goede verteller. Dat laatste is zeker belangrijk voor een non-fictie boek als deze. Ik heb niet veel met auto’s, ze moeten gewoon doen waarvoor ze gemaakt zijn, mij van A naar B brengen en wel op een veilige manier. De geschiedenis achter dit verhaal maakt mij wel nieuwsgierig. Een autorace van Peking naar Parijs in de twintigste eeuw. Waarschijnlijk ken je de plaatjes wel van de eerste auto’s en wegen die er nog niet zo mooi uitzagen als nu. Hoe hebben ze dit ooit bedacht en uitgevoerd?

Het boek is een prachtig hardcover exemplaar met op de omslag een plaatje van de start van de race. Kassia St. Clair haar eerdere boek Het geheime leven van kleuren bracht haar op het spoor van het idee voor dit boek. De kleur rood verwees vaak naar prins Borghese en zijn pioniersrit van Peking naar Parijs. Ze ging op onderzoek uit en ontdekte dat er veel boeken geschreven zijn over de race maar dat die boeken vol waren van verhalen die niet altijd klopten of mooier gemaakt waren. Kassia wilde het eerlijke verhaal, ontdaan van mythes en legendes, vertellen.

Na de hoofdstukindeling worden de auto’s en de teams voorgesteld. De teams zijn ieder samengesteld met een chauffeur, een journalist en soms een monteur/co-chauffeur. Een van de auto’s is bijvoorbeeld een Nederlandse ‘Spijker’. De kracht van de auto’s verschillen van 10 tot 40 PK. Als je bedenkt dat mijn auto rond de 125 PK heeft, dan wordt wel duidelijk dat het echt een zware race gaat worden. Daarna volgt de routekaart zodat je een beeld krijgt van de weg die ze moeten afleggen.

Dat Kassia een goede verteller is, kan ik het helemaal mee eens zijn. Het is best een lijvig boek van ruim 350 pagina’s maar ik heb me geen moment verveeld. De schrijfstijl is heel beeldend zoals dit stukje over de proefrit van de eerste mercedes:

“Na afloop liet ze weten dat ze onderweg niet alleen brandstof had ingenomen bij apotheken die het als schoonmaakvloeistof verkochten, maar ook met een hoedenpen de verstopte benzineleiding had gereinigd, met haar kousenband de defecte ontsteking had geïsoleerd en de eerste remblokjes ter wereld had uitgevonden - gemaakt van leer dat ze bij een schoenmaker had gehaald – toen de oorspronkelijke massief houten exemplaren versleten waren.”

Dit stukje zet je met beide benen in eind 1800 begin 1900. Het is niet alleen techniek en auto’s waarover geschreven wordt, maar ook de verhoudingen in en tussen de teams onderling. De leden van de teams gingen met hun auto per schip naar China. Ze waren lang onderweg en dat zette de onderlinge verhoudingen al behoorlijk op scherp en dan moest de race nog beginnen.
Om de context goed te begrijpen weidt Kassia ook een aantal hoofdstukken aan de tijd waarin de race zich afspeelde. Zo vertelt ze over de geschiedenis van het land waar ze doorheen racen. Ook al was het beknopt, het was heel duidelijk en beeldend. Ook onderwerpen als de vrouwen en de automobiel, paardenkracht vóór de automobiel en nog andere onderwerpen maken dat je even ergens anders op de wereld bent.

Ik vind het knap hoe Kassia je meeneemt naar het begin van de twintigste eeuw en je in de setting van de race plaatst. Het lijkt of jij daar echt bent. Bijzonder om zo een non-fictie boek te schrijven. Zo beeldend geschreven, maar toch ook een feitelijk verslag doen van deze bijzondere race. Je wordt bepaald dat een als deze race wel echt primitief is. Verslag doen als journalist gaat niet zo eenvoudig als tegenwoordig. De verhalen werden vaak ’s nachts geschreven, bij kaarslicht, wanneer ze niet aan het rijden waren. Het was in die tijd sowieso mazzel als je telegraaf post tegenkwam die ook nog open was zodat je je handgeschreven verhaal kon verzenden naar een familielid dat het naar de krant stuurde. Het was vaak dus de vraag of het de krant wel bereikte. Wat denk je van de voorbereidingen voor de race? Behalve een auto moest je ook reserve onderdelen meenemen want even wat online bestellen ging niet in die tijd en op de route waren er over het algemeen geen winkels waar ze onderdelen verkochten. Maar ook spullen voor de overnachtingen en eten moesten ze meenemen. Het was maar de vraag of ze iets van een supermarkt of restaurant tegenkwamen. Moet je je voorstellen hoe volgeladen de auto was naast 2 of 3 passagiers en een beperkt aantal PK’s! De wegen waren geen snelle asfaltwegen, maar zandwegen en dan heb ik de bergpassen nog niet genoemd. Hoe zou dat gegaan zijn? Dat lees je allemaal in dit boek.

Kortom ik geef voor dit bijzondere boek, geschikt voor mannen die van auto’s houden en voor vrouwen die van geschiedenis, houden 5 sterren. Ik ga zeker ook de eerdere boeken van Kassia lezen in afwachting van een nieuw boek van haar hand.

[Nigel Kotani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first heard about the Peking to Paris rally when I was about 10 years old, and it's continued to pop into my mind over the decades since despite never having heard anything more about it.

When this book came up as Radio 4's book of the week it was therefore only ever going to be a matter of time before I read it, and pretty much the first thing I discovered when I heard about the book remains the most astonishing. The rally took place in 1907. In my child's imagination I had placed it maybe in the early 1920s, and the idea that anyone could have driven from Peking to Paris in a car within about a decade of its invention still astounds me.

Even calling them all cars is stretching our modern-day understanding of the word. These days power is everything, but this race took place so early in the history of the motor car - a subject which for a couple of terms at school I was somewhat improbably taught by, equally improbably, the grandson of the Egyptologist Howard Carter - that the conventional opinion at the time was that the lower-powered and lighter cars would have an advantage over the more powerful and heavier ones in the rough terrain of China and Siberia. One of the cars had only three wheels and fielded only 6 horse power, about half of the lowest-powered modern Vespa scooters. By the end of the race the conventional opinion had been so overturned that the people previously espousing it had conveniently swept under the carpet the fact that they had ever held it.

The book works very well structurally because the author doesn't just tell the story of the race in a linear manner. A book uninterruptedly describing crossing the endless plains of Mongolia and the endless forests of Siberia would have quickly become tedious. Instead, she tells the story of the race itself in 11 chapters, each interspersed with a chapter on a different aspect of the motor car and its history. There is, for example, a history of women in motoring (with one of the reasons that petrol won out over electricity in the very early days being that petrol was apparently seen as more macho). There are also chapters on the growth of the use of land for roads, on the use of motor vehicles in the military, on the oil industry and on road safety. There are also separate chapters on the then history of a couple of the countries through which they passed: China and Russia. Each of these chapters could be read as a stand-alone essay, and they work well to keep the narrative flowing.

I found the book absorbing, entertaining and informative, with my biggest complaint about it being an unlikely one: footnotes. This author loves a footnote. I have calculated that 12% of the text in the book (ignoring the reference notes and bibliography) comprises footnotes. Think about that in more detail. It means that for every seven words in the book, there is one word of footnote. Chapter 2, which would be 24 pages without footnotes, contains no fewer than 18 of them. That is simply too much, and impacts adversely on the narrative flow. I have always understood that one of most important aspects of writing is knowing what to leave out. If it's important enough to include, then it needs to be worked into the main text. If it's not important enough to include, leave it out.

I liked this book, but my interest in it was personal. There aren't that many people to whom I will be recommending it as it's not quite good enough to fall into the category of 'non-fiction that's so well-written as to be excellent regardless of your interest in the subject'. You need to want to know the story this book tells, as I did, in order to justify reading it.

[Rob Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Kassia St. Clair's compelling historical account, "The Race to the Future," readers are transported to the scorching summer of 1907, where the heart-pounding Peking to Paris race unfolds against the backdrop of a world teetering on the brink of revolution.

The narrative opens with a vivid description of the Rubicon moment in the rise of the automobile—a sensational race featuring five diverse automobiles near the Forbidden City. St. Clair introduces us to a captivating cast of characters, including an Italian prince, a daring con man, and a French racing driver, each contributing to the high-stakes drama of this audacious journey.

What makes this book stand out is St. Clair's meticulous attention to historical detail. The author expertly navigates the complexities of the race, delving into the treacherous terrains the contestants faced—steep mountain ranges, dense forests, and the unforgiving Gobi Desert. The immersive storytelling captures the attention of a global audience eagerly devouring telegraphed reports, making this one of the first-ever global news sensations.

Beyond the thrilling adventures, "The Race to the Future" unfolds as a metaphor for a world in the throes of profound change. St. Clair seamlessly weaves in the geopolitical and technological landscape of the time, from the fall of the Qing dynasty to the rise of gendered marketing, and from the decline of the horse economy to the looming specter of the First World War. The departure of the horse economy and the rise of the automotive age become powerful symbols of an era hurtling towards an uncertain future.

In conclusion, "The Race to the Future" is an engaging exploration of one of the world's first automotive races, offering readers a front-row seat to a transformative era. While the characters may fall short of complete resonance, St. Clair's narrative prowess and her ability to intertwine the race with broader historical shifts make this book a captivating read for enthusiasts of history, technology, and adventure.

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of the Peking to Paris automobile race in the early 1900s, how it impacted the international view of the automobile, as well as a look at how automotive development changed transportation and other aspects of life, how automotive and tire companies started many races to drum up interest (like the Tour de France, started by a tire company), brief biographies of the people who drove/rode in the Peking to Paris race, and the cultural/historical status of the countries through which they raced.

I did not realize that the tongue in cheek movie The Great Race was based on an actual event that was pretty close to as crazy as the movie version, though in different ways. It's a wild history you have to read to believe. The author obviously did extensive research on a wide range of topics; I can't imagine how long this book must have taken to write! It touches on so many historical details but it didn't feel disjointed and it flowed well. I did a mix of both reading and listening to this, and while I liked reading it to keep all the names straight better, it wasn't a bad listen at all.

Notes on content:
Language: Maybe one or two swears in quotes but I don't really remember any.
Sexual content: Rasputin and his conquests comes up as they go through Russia, but no graphic details.
Violence: Fatal car crashes and early auto races that went horribly wrong are related. Some on the Peking to Paris race face harsh conditions (some almost die of thirst/exposure).
Ethnic diversity: The race participants were from all over Europe.
LGBTQ+ content: None specified.
Other: Racist and culturally insensitive comments of drivers about the people in the lands they drove through are quoted at times.

[William Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am grateful to WW Norton & Company/Liveright for providing me with an ARC of "The Race to the Future-8000 Miles to Paris-The Adventure That Accelerated the Twentieth Century," by Kassia St. Clair. Initially I was intrigued by the subject and the possibilities that it affords, but as I read the book, about the misadventures of early twentieth century automobile enthusiasts undertaking a "race" from Peking (modern rendering is Beijing) to Paris, I found myself unimpressed by the basic narrative of the race (in modern terms more a "rally" ) and far more impressed with the accompanying and fascinating contextualization that the author produces. The book is slow going, partly because of this contextualization which is more or less tangential to the central theme--the race itself. That said, the race narrative has its moments although they are few and far between, while the insights offered by the author in the rather discordant essays on context are both relevant and fascinating. I am sure some readers will have more appreciation for the central narrative than I have, and that is as it should be. Nonetheless, I would urge readers not to skip over the long passages on topics relating to everything from horses to public roads and electric cars. There is a wealth of information here for those who are interested and the travails of the participants in the race (the central narrative) juxtapose neatly with the discussions of infrastructure that dominate context. It is fascinating and full of unexpected jewels for the patient reader.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first book of 2025 (read from start to finish as opposed to being carried over!) and if this year’s reading carries on like this I will be pleased.
I particularly enjoyed when the numerous short essays in between chapters of the race which expand upon points made in them. She links the topics and debates which in 1907 were often emerging with new discoveries or ongoing with clashing societal elements to their modern day counterparts. Who owns our streets? How do we utilise fuel more efficiently and indeed implement renewable energy? What can be done about the undeniable and often hypocritical relieance on oil in modern day economics and international relations? Often these are subjects which on first glance, a transcontinental race 110 years into the past have little to no impact on. I supremely enjoyed these small diversions, short in length but certainly introductions to fascinating topics, sometimes more than I enjoyed the race itself. Sometimes I wished more depth had been involved but overall I didn’t mind this - many of the topics I already had read about and studied in much greater detail, so me wanting more may well have just been the result of that prior knowledge.
I can definitely see why this was a BBC Radio 4 book of the week. I don’t think St Claire has done anything new or groundbreaking in this book, but it is nonetheless very engaging and covers a wide variety of interesting topics. I can see this book encouraging readers to make their own further research into some of the subjects, but as a stand alone book it more than holds up.

[Jon Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as an ebook checked out from the library. I can't account for why this book left me feeling a little "meh" about it. After all, the book is about a historic, international automobile race from Peking to Paris in 1907, when roads (where they existed) were still paved with bricks, and the railroad and horse-and-buggy were still very much in vogue for getting from Point A to Point B. Chapters about the racers and their misadventures are sandwiched between chapters about the development of the automobile and the many issues that sprang from its development (reliability, safety, pollution, traffic gridlock, etc). Maybe my biggest problem was not with the book itself but the circumstances under which I read it. I had a lot of issues reading it on the Libby app. Every time I wanted to read, I had to download the book again. On a couple of occasions the app froze up and I had to return the ebook, then put a hold on it even though there was no one else waiting for it, and wait 24 hours for it to be released. Maybe the problems are with my Kindle, but I've never had similar problems with any other library ebook. Oh well. So take this review with a grain of salt. Three out of five stars.

[Dennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in this book. When I saw an ad for it I thought I would enjoy it. It has several topics I enjoy. Cars, geography, cultural history among others but It just never grabbed me. The book discusses the Peking to Paris car race in 1907. Quite an event. There's a chapter on the race and then alternating chapters discuss the culture they're passing through or some of the new technology of the day especially the telegraph which allowed for world-wide coverage of this event. Strange to read about a world-wide event in 1907. One quick story. One of the non-race chapters talked about the urban horse which at the time many were hoping cars would replace. She talks about horse population in cities and the number that sticks with me is 82,000 just in Chicago. I can't imagine. The implications of that number from the front of the horse to the back of the horse are enormous. No recommendation of this book but if you're interested in any of the topics I listed above give it a try. Maybe it will be a better book for you than it was for me.

[Mary Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

historical account of the first Peking to Paris road race in 1907, over 8000 miles!
The dawn of the automobile era. Mostly only rich people had cars. This was sponsored by Le Matin a French newspaper. There were 4 cars in the race: an Italian car, 2 French cars, and one Dutch car. The terrain was over nonexistent roads, rivers, Gobi desert, with the only support being what the divers had arranged before. The Itala car was driven by an Italian prince. There were 2 others in the car…one a reporter. That car won the race in over 50+ days. They had to push, pull, and drag the cars through crazy weather and obstacles.
Every alternating chapter was written about either the history of the region during that time period or the history of the automobile. The next chapter was about the race itself and the personalities of the people in each car. This captured the imagination of the world just before the world fell apart WWI.
Very well written and very informative and well researched.

[Andy Matheson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid three stars. I was sent this by a book club so didn’t know anything about it. My assumption was that it would explore the dynamics of the Peking to Paris race and would be factual but written as a novel. It took me a few chapters to realise that every other chapter was a historical look at the development of cars, the impact on society and how automobiles have evolved.
So the book flips from story to historical context.
The most interesting chapters turn out to be the ones giving history and perspective. Some nice stories and facts in here.
The description of the race itself does make you think that all competitors must have been mad. So you get a real feel for the journey and the challenge of driving a car through mud, fields and over mountains.
I knocked off stars as the race itself isn’t that captivating. Lots of descriptions of towns and people and the quest for repairs. The characters seemed somewhat distant.
I couldn’t help feel that Robert Harris might have brought the drama into the story.
If you love cars, give it a read ..

[Grant Pratt Schweppe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a well structured book for someone who appreciates automotive history. While the major connecting arc is the Peking to Paris challenge, the author would insert mini essays on different automotive history topics along with a historical and political context when it came to the areas covered in the challenge. Not all the mini essays were woven in with the best cohesiveness or relevance to the challenge, but they were still enjoyed.

I would highly recommend this book to early automotive enthusiasts, but maybe a little deep for the person who has a basic “like of cars” (especially if just more modern ones). The author kept the level of technical details to a minimum, so this has a higher balance of a historical narrative vs car catalogue/manual.

This book helped shape the context of the incredible challenge undertaken… a year before the Model T came out.

[Denise Goerisch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the few nonfiction books that I wish had a YA or abridged version. Usually I like when authors provide additional content(e.g. history, politics, culture, etc) to contextualize their subject of inquiry. However, I had a difficult time following the actual subject, the 1907 Peking to Paris Motor Race, as there was so much additional and very much tangential information which included modern use of fossil fuels, Elon Musk, the Russian Revolution, horses, and modern urban design. What I actually felt was missing was a history of spectacle and racing, which would have enriched the book. Very well researched and I understand some of the limitations in completing a history of this race (as the author wrote it during COVID) but needed to be better organized and edited.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Race to the Future” by Kassi’s St. Clair is a nonfiction book about the 8,000 mile Peking to Paris automobile race in 1907. In addition to the race, cars, and competitors, the book discusses Russian history, horses, and the evolution of roads towards auto use.

This book is very well researched and includes much information. Over 60 pages are for footnotes, a bibliography, and index. In many ways this seemed like a textbook for a college class.

I give this book a 3.5. I recommend the book to individuals interested in the specific topic or pure non-fiction lovers. This may not be the book for other audiences.

I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway. Thank you to the author and publisher for the chance to read.

[Eileen Breseman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kassia St. Clair writes detailed analysis of the race from Peking (Beijing) to Paris in 1907 in story fashion. This is my 3rd book by her, and although it follows a similar pattern making the racers and their cars vivid, I didn't enjoy it as much as her books, The Golden Thread (fiber and fashion playing an outsized roll in much of history), and The Secret Lives of Color (so many tones & hues with descriptive naming and interesting back stories). I identified less with cars and eccentric characters, often rich and condecending the the areas they traveled through. No doubt cars & their accoutrements (oil, gas, assembly line factories, roads, etc.) drove major changes into our world, for better or worse.

[Joost Kiefte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read, the race is compellingly described and alternated with chapters on the political, economic and historical niceties of the travelled-through countries, in particular China and Russia, and the development of the car and its impact on the world in general.
One strange point is that the author mentions that the Dutch Spyker car is painted in the colours of the French tricolore, which she says must be an insult to the Dutch producer of the car. Probably she doesn't realise that the Dutch national flag consists of the very same colours....
Sorely lacking were pictures of the cars and their crews themselves. There are a few but there could/should have been many, many more.

[Starbubbles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, but St. Clair spent a lot of time on context and the history of automobiling. She also spent a lot of time describing the changes and civil unrest in Russia and China. So much so that I had trouble remembering all of the different people on the teams. It was sad because she mentioned a lot of people in the epilogue, and I only remembered like 4 people.

I would have loved to hear some of the crazy stories about the race, even if they weren't true. I mean, slap an "allegedly" or two surrounding the retelling. It would have been fine. I just wish more time was spent on the race itself.