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A fascinating account of the greatest road trip in American history.
On July 7, 1919, an extraordinary cavalcade of sixty-nine military motor vehicles set off from the White House on an epic journey. Their goal was California, and ahead of them lay 3,250 miles of dirt, mud, rock, and sand. Sixty-two days later they arrived in San Francisco, having averaged just five miles an hour. Known as the First Transcontinental Motor Train, this trip was an adventure, a circus, a public relations coup, and a war game all rolled into one. As road conditions worsened, it also became a daily battle of sweat and labor, of guts and determination.
American Road is the story of this incredible journey. Pete Davies takes us from east to west, bringing to life the men on the trip, their trials with uncooperative equipment and weather, and the punishing landscape they encountered. Ironically one of the participants was a young soldier named Dwight Eisenhower, who, four decades later, as President, launched the building of the interstate highway system. Davies also provides a colorful history of transcontinental car travel in this country, including the first cross-country trips and the building of the Lincoln Highway. This richly detailed book offers a slice of Americana, a piece of history unknown to many, and a celebration of our love affair with the road.
- Sales Rank: #326920 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Henry Holt and Co.
- Published on: 2002-07-03
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 10.48" h x 1.06" w x 5.84" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 304 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
From Publishers Weekly
In his newest book, Davies (Inside the Hurricane; The Devil's Flu) offers a play-by-play account of the 1919 cross-country military caravan that doubled as a campaign for the Lincoln Highway (so named for the one Republican the corporate leaders of the day figured most Americans would embrace). The potential here is extraordinary. Using the progress of the caravan and the metaphor of paving toward the future versus stagnating in the mud, Davies touches on the industrial and social factors that developed the small and mid-sized towns that line the highways and byways of the nation. But instead of allowing the story of the caravan to anchor a series of more engaging essays on the people, politics and development of the lands it connects, the author insists on a day-to-day narrative of breakdowns, muddy roads and ice cream socials (the convoy left just days after Prohibition became law). Officers attend fancy dinners, enlisted men "dance with local girls," and the arrival of two miles' worth of dusty and cantankerous machinery is the greatest moment in every life in every town. Eisenhower, a future military legend and U.S. president, makes an early cameo as a young, frustrated officer who takes part in the convoy in the hopes of reinvigorating a stalled army career. Even this little twist fails to engage the reader, as Ike becomes yet another faceless character in a tale paced not unlike the caravan it chronicles slow.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In 1919, a military convoy of 81 vehicles set out to travel the Lincoln Highway--a line drawn on the map--from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco. Essentially a PR ploy to dramatize the need for good roads, the "First Transcontinental Motor Train" delivered. Trucks foundered in mud, crashed through wooden bridges, and got beaten to pieces on byways barely better than trails. Modern motorists will be surprised to learn just how bad things were back then, but the story behind the undertaking is equally interesting. Automobile and tire manufacturers, who stood to gain if newly car-crazy citizens had smooth roads to travel, managed to drive the government their way; the grueling journey captured the American imagination and spurred road building to a fervor. Davies' research is thorough and his writing able, though readers may get a bit dazed by the large cast of characters. But the author, who is British, seems swept up in the romance of automotive endeavor himself; some reflection on where all these good roads have taken us would have been a welcome addition. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“Davies recounts these treacherous travels in a brisk and readable style . . . he has put history, sociology, politics, and human nature into well-tuned balance.” —The Boston Globe
“Thoroughly absorbing and often amusing . . . American Road is a fascinating social history of a vanished age and of America’s breathtakingly swift transformation into a mobilized society.” —Bill Bryson, A Book-of-the-Month Club Judge’s Selection
“A first-rate story.” —Richmond Times Dispatch
“A crackerjack book, a dandy slice of Americana . . . Davies has researched and written well. His anecdotes do not merely amuse, but also illustrate the points being made.” —Chicago Sun-Times
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
I love Davies style of writing and straight forward presentation
By JR
I love Davies style of writing and straight forward presentation. I've read a number of his works and this one doesn't disappoint. You will probably most likely enjoy this if you are into the history aspect through a storied perspective.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Epic Journey
By Brian D. Rubendall
"The American Road" is a fascinating historical work that chronicles an event that was of monumental importance that has been most forgotten in the public consciousness. In the summer of 1919, a U.S. Army convoy left Washington, D.C., bound for San Francisco. Two months later it arrived at its destination having fought incredible obstacles and hardships along the way. In doing so, the convoy dramatically pointed out to a nation just emrging from the first World War and entering the automobile age the need for good roads.
Author Pete Davies does a decent job of resurrecting the memory of The First Transcontinental Motor Train. He describes the trip in detail and recounts the contribution of its most colorful participants, including a young lieutenant colonel named Dwight D. Eisenhower. The event was a spectacle all along the route, and even generated controversy between communities either included or left off the right of way. For most of the journey, the convoy followed the "Lincoln Highway," a privately funded project that was the first bicoastal road, but in 1919 in many places was actually little more than a line on the map.
As a work of history, "American Road" completes its mission well enough. Author Davies is a decent storyteller and he does a good job of setting the historical context and showing how the event was crucial to the development of America's national road system. The book's main drawback is that Davies chose to focus much of his attention on the relatively unintersting local political controversies along the route and not enough on the stories of individual soldiers in the convoy. Even the colorful "Ike" gets only a scant few pages of coverage in total. Also underutilized is the author's accounts of what the route looks like today, which are sprinkled in here and there without much rhyme or reason. On the plus side, the book contains a generous helping of photographs and a helpful route map on the inside covers.
Overall, a decent historical work that serves to rekindle the memory of the dawn of the American motor age.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Ike's Excellent Adventure
By Bruce Crocker
American Road by Pete Davies is the story of the first large group road trip ever taken in the United States. Between July and August 1919, the Army sent a truck convoy from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco along the then largely unpaved Lincoln Highway. Ike was there as a young officer. The truck and tire companies were there assuring good product placement. The Good Roads Movement was there. American citzens were cheering [and booing] and Congress was watching. This was the point in history where highways became a Federal concern. Try to imagine the United States without Route 66 or I-80 and you'll know why this period was a pivotal point in road trip history.
American Road is history woven around the travelogue format. As the truck convoy progresses across the country, we learn about the Army's switch to truck transport, the Good Roads Movement, the early history of the auto and tire industries, how the different states were handling their highways, about life in small American towns, and that Ike was a prankster among other things. Even though the transitions aren't always seemless, American Roads is a smooth and comfortable read.
I enjoyed American Roads a lot. My biggest complaint [and it's a small, whiny complaint] is that the book skips from McKeesport, Pennsylvania to Wilkinsburg, Pennsyvania and fails to mention the towns in between. I lived ON US 30 [the old Lincoln Highway] between 1976 and 1981 in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania and still have family there, and I wouldn't characterize the area as a place that has the "look of a place whose future has been and gone already." I remember the Lincoln statue in Wilkinsburg. I recommend this book to anyone interested in history, especially the history of US highways, and anyone who enjoys a good travelogue and a good road trip.
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