Two key evolutionary developments define humans: a large brain and the ability to run long distances cross-country. That explains why the Jeep is the most iconic vehicle on the face of the planet. The fruits of our brain activity increasingly entrapped us in urban confinement and the constraints of pavement. The Jeep offered the way out: the freedom to take us anywhere our legs once had, and our horses after that. It embodied the cowboy myth, updated for the second half of the twentieth century; the last hurrah of Americans’ conquest of its open spaces. The Jeep became the mechanical alter-ego of man. Well, at least of one six-year old. (Read More…)