Full name: The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways

Author: Earl Swift Year: 2011 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: History, Non Fiction, Travel Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780618812417 0618812415

A man-made wonder, a connective network, an economic force, a bringer of blight and sprawl and the possibility of escape--the U.S. interstate system changed the face of our country. The Big Roads charts the creation of these essential American highways. From the turn-of-the-century car racing entrepreneur who spurred the citizen-led "Good Roads" movement, to the handful of driven engineers who conceived of the interstates and how they would work--years before President Eisenhower knew the plans existed--to the protests that erupted across the nation when highways reached the cities and found people unwilling to be uprooted in the name of progress, Swift follows a winding, fascinating route through twentieth-century American life.  How did we get from dirt tracks to expressways, from main streets to off-ramps, from mud to concrete and steel, in less than a century? Through decades of politics, activism, and marvels of engineering, we recognize in our highways the wanderlust, grand scale, and conflicting notions of citizenship and progress that define America. Similar books: In Europe by Geert Mak A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane Cities of Gold by Douglas Preston South with Endurance by Frank Hurley Foreign Devils on the Silk Road by Peter Hopkirk The Fourth Part of the World by Toby Lester Amsterdam by Russell Shorto Heaven's Command: An Imperial Progress by Jan Morris Pax Britannica by Jan Morris The Discovery of France by Graham Robb Venice by Thomas F. Madden Voices of the Old Sea by Norman Lewis Borderland by Anna Reid Going Back to Bisbee by Richard Shelton Goodnight, Mister Lenin by Tiziano Terzani Korea by Daniel Tudor Seven Ages of Paris by Alistair Horne The Road from the Past by Ina Caro