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American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age | 
 enlarge | Author: Pete Davies
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $14.40
You Save: $11.60 (45%)
New (8) from $14.40
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 907214
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.1 x 1.2
ASIN: B0000C7BMW
Publication Date: July 3, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 American Road--before the Interstate January 21, 2008
A book for all western history buffs--the "military road train" wanted to prove that coast to coast travel could be done, of course having repair and recovery vehicles along with them helped a lot.--the Lincoln Hiway (another good look at historic travel in the '20's)--came along and became part of the interstate hiway system
 A Great Telling of a Great Story, but Not Much For Vintage Truck Enthisiasts October 5, 2007
Despite only giving it only three stars, I really loved this book because I love the story of the Transcontinental Expedition. And it was truly an expedition in every sense of the word. Davies covers the story well from the people perspective. It was an epic journey where human will and endurance was tested. The influence this journey had on creating America's road systems cannot be underestimated and Davies covers that aspect in detail as well. Where Davies missed the mark, in my opinion, was in the area of vehicle technology. This trip had triangular motivations. The first, of course, was to promote a national system of roads. Another was to test the relatively new and inexperienced U.S. Army military transport service. Despite WWI, and perhaps because of it, there was still a lot to learn. The third was to test the available trucks. If you read the all the reports from this journey, which I have, they are a snapshot of motor vehicle technology in 1919. And motor vehicle technology benefited by this trip, especially in the area of military transport. One of the most important lessons being the importance, if not vital necessity, of four-wheel drive on unimproved roads for a military truck. There were only four 4x4s on the trip, out of a total 46 vehicles; three FWDs and a Militor artillery tractor equipped with a winch (a truck which essentially combined the drivetrain technology of the Nash Quad military truck with the same engine as used in the FWD and topped with a new body that resembled a Mack Bulldog). You won't learn those previous tidbits from the book. Unfortunately, very little information on the trucks finds it's way into the story. That may be a product of Davies not being a gearhead, which seemed fairly obvious from what little motor vehicle information there was, and perhaps he wanted to place the thrust of the story elsewhere. While I personally would have wished for more on the trucks, am I being unfair to judge the book more harshly for it's lack? Perhaps, but being as objective as I can, I think that topic was neglected. Bottom line, if you are a person interested in the trucks, you might be a little disappointed with the book. Having seen the files in the National Archives covering this story, the truck information is there, both technical and photographic. Otherwise, this is a great book and worthy of the price. I feel a little guilty not giving the author a better shake. Not only did he give this relatively obscure story better exposure, he gave us a well written and accessible reference to it.
A wonderful trip back in time to the early days of motor travel July 8, 2007
Davies does an excellent job of covering this first of it's kind mechanized transcontinental journey in 1919. From the car trapping mud of Nebraska to the mighty struggle through the sand flats and high desert of Utah, you almost feel as if you were there, along for the 3000+ mile grind that took an unheard of 2 months at the dawn of the motor age. Given the primitive conditions of American roads in 1919 (and I use this term very loosely), it is amazing how far we have come in 85 years with the interstate superslabs we all now take for granted. This is a must read for any serious highway historian!
As interesting as history ever gets December 26, 2006
The real accomplishment of Davies is to take this very pedestrian (IMHO) story of the first truck convoy to cross America in 1919 and turn it into a story about diligence, 'never-give-up', finish what you start, good old american stubborness. The story doesn't hit its' stride until the trucks cross the Mississippi, so Davies spends a considerable time discussing the personalities involved (including Captain Dwight Eisenhower) and their histories which just give the story a more human face.
In 1913 a group of auto-crats from Detroit, decided that what America needed was a transcontinental highway. They dreamed of a "Lincoln Memorial Highway" from Washington to San Francisco. In 1919, to publicize the need for "Good Roads" the US Government sent a contingent of trucks from the 'Motor Transport' section of the Army along the route of the Lincoln Highway. At the same time they were showing how there was 'no road there' in places except for sand, dust and quicksand. In one part of Utah, the crews had to pull the Trucks through the salt desert by ropes.
For anyone who thinks that their road is the 'worst' because of some potholes, this story will open their eyes as to what a 'trip to the country' was like at the turn of the century.
Epic, indeed December 3, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Motorized warfare became an established fact in WW I, but even by then the motor vehicle itself had developed far beyond the capacity of the roads then in existence to handle them. Combine this with the fact that the automobile was quickly becoming the major means of transportation of average Americans (the idea that cars were merely the playthings of the rich was passe by 1910), and the belief that good roads were necessary becomes evident. So, in 1919, to make the point obvious, the military decided, with great publicity, to drive a motor convoy clear across the country from Washington to San Francisco. The route they would take was The Lincoln Highway, which had been conceived in 1913 by a group of auto and tire manufacturers (primarily Henry Joy, head of Packard Motors, Henry Ostermann, who became chief of The Lincoln Highway Assocciation, and Frank Seiberling, head of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company) as a transcontinental highway, stretching from NYC to San Francisco. Raising money and pledging much of their own finances, many sections of the road had been worked on by 1919. The trip would prove the need for good roads (and would be a coup for The Lincoln Highway) and would also show off the military's capacity to utilize modern warfare's machinery. Eighty-one vehicles and 300 men made up the convoy; one of the officers was a young Dwight Eisenhower. They set off in July 1919, and reached San Francisco in September.
The book is as much, if not more, a history of The Lincoln Highway as it existed in 1919 as it is an account of the motor train. Davies gives a vivid description of the many difficulties experienced by the convoy, which multiplied as it moved west; crossing the nearly trackless deserts of especially Utah and Nevada took a Herculean effort. But it seems that just about any town of decent size planned festivities for the passing convoy, and Davies, often by referring to stories printed in local newspapers at the time, relates what these were like. The completion of the journey is almost anticlimactic compared to the controversies over the placement of the road in Utah, which Davies deals with in great detail. (Some might object to this, but I found it fascinating.) Davies tells his story well and at just enough points along the way refers to particular landmarks and interesting sections of the highway a modern traveler can see, which makes the book even more interesting. A fascinating piece of Americana.
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