Cycling author Robert Hurst has a new book that should be available sometime in the next month or two.

In The Cyclist’s Manifesto: The Case for Riding on Two Wheels Instead of Four, Hurst looks at the role that human powered transportation can play in this junction of history as energy resource scarcity comes into play.

As the energy monster emerges from the shadows and starts to reveal the furry edges of itself to a sleepy populace, Americans cling with renewed urgency to the ideal of the personal automobile.

In popular visions of the future, technology comes riding to the rescue of the American Way of Life, and the thought of having to drive less is exiled to the back alleys of the mind. The simplest solutions — those that don’t involve carrying a few tons of metal and plastic around everywhere we go — are banished from the discussion. It’s a colossal and perhaps fatal failure of imagination.

In his latest book, Hurst looks at the history of bicycling as sport and its future as a means of transportation.

It’s not yet available, but you can pre-order and look at a preview at Amazon: The Cyclist’s Manifesto: The Case for Riding on Two Wheels Instead of Four by Robert Hurst.

Hurst also wrote the popular and excellent The Art of Cycling: A Guide to Bicycling in 21st Century America. See also his Industrialized Cyclist blog.