Phil Patton is a design journalist, curator, and the author of many books. He writes regularly about automobile design for the New York Times. His books include Open Road: A Celebration of The American Highway; Made in USA: The Secret Histories of the Things that Made America; Bug, a cultural history of the Volkswagen Beetle; and Dreamland, about the culture of experimental aircraft. He has served as a curator for museum exhibitions, including “Cars, Culture and the City” at the Museum of the City of New York (2010), “Curves of Steel: Streamlined Automobile Design” at the Phoenix Art Museum (2007), and “Different Roads: Automobiles for the Next Century” at The Museum of Modern Art in New York (1999).

He teaches in the Design Crit Program at the School of Visual Arts.

Patton has been a contributing editor to Esquire, ID, and Departures magazines and has taught at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

He has been a regular contributor to CBS News and has appeared as a commentator on several television programs on PBS and the History Channel. Programs on which he has appeared include Today, CBS Sunday Morning, The Charlie Rose Show, Fresh Air, All Things Considered, and Talk of the Nation.