In the aftermath of the Second World War, the long-established Rover company of Solihull was fighting to survive. It needed a vehicle that would give it an advantage over its rivals. Taking the American Willys Jeep as inspiration, Rover designers came up with a four-wheel-drive utility vehicle that would become an all-time classic.

The Land Rover has undergone a number of facelifts in its sixty-year life, but the vehicle still made today is fundamentally very close to the 1948 original. After 1970 the original was joined by a host of other models including the Discovery, Range Rover, and Freelander. This is this story of Land Rover, written by the foremost historian of the make, encompassing all the models and dividing them according to their use. The distinguished histories of Land Rover on expedition, in agriculture, warfare, and in many other fields are told separately.