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Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life
Penguin
March 1999
384 pages ISBN: 0140267719 Trade Size
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Non-Fiction
What do Levittown, the 1939 World's Fair, and the Model T
have in common? To what invention can the existence of
suburban sprawl, toll booths, mall shopping, an oil-obsessed
foreign policy, fast food, and air and noise pollution be
attributed? The interstate highway. This landmark enterprise of the
1950s literally changed the face of America for eternity. In
1919, Dwight D. Eisenhower needed sixty-two days to travel
from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco. Now, eighty years
and 42,500 miles of paved roads later, the trip can be made
in less than seventy-two hours. Divided Highways is the fascinating history behind the
efforts to make cement trails across America, told through
the stories of the people who dreamed up, mapped out,
paved-and even tried to stop-the interstate highways.
Popular historian Tom Lewis details "man's triumph over
nature" in an engaging, sweeping style. Award-winning film
director Ken Burns says: "He tells the story of how we get
from point A to point B in America. And just as our lives
should be, Lewis makes the journey more interesting and
meaningful than the destination."
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