American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age (Hardcover)

by Pete Davies (Author) "IN 1919, THE United States was in a condition that might best be described as traumatized optimism..." (more)
Key Phrases: kitchen trailers, motor train, transcontinental road, Lincoln Highway, San Francisco, Salt Lake City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; 1st edition (July 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080506883X
• ISBN-13: 978-0805068832
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #202,696 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A piece of Americana, July 17, 2002

By A Customer

While Pete Davies may be a British citizen, he does an effective job in capturing a small segment of Americana in the immediate aftermath of World War I.

It is hard to believe in this day and age, that just 80 years ago there was limited amount of good roads in the U.S. and traveling cross country by car would be such a major achievement.

The book is actually two stories. The first is the story of the First Transcontinental Motor Train from Washington to San Francisco. The second is the movement to build The Licoln Highway, a national road (or a U.S. Main Street) across the country.

Mr. Davies gives a vivid description of capturing post World War I along the route of the motorcade. All through the route both large and small towns planned dances, baseball games and provided food and drink (lemonade since Prohibition had taken effect one week before the tour started) for the soldiers. To many towns this was an event unlike any other. From time to time Mr. Davies also goes into a brief history of towns along the route and in certain instances what it looks like in the 21st century (some have even disappeared). A mysterious Dr. Johnson appears throughout the book giving speeches for the need of good roads and urging for the passage of pending Townsend Act before Congress that called for a national system of highways.

While there were many social events along the way, the motorcade involved incredibly hard work. This was especially true west of the Mississippi River and east of Sierra Nevada when the roads were generally unpaved, the weather was relentless, numerous trucks, cars, and motorcycles got stuck in mud and sand requiring to be towed (sometimes by hand) and bridges were not found not be sturdy enough for the motorcade.

Besides Dwight Eisenhower who was an Army officer on the cross country journey, several of people associated with the motorcade or the Lincoln Highway are chronicled, many of them had a vested interest in building roads. These include Carl Fisher who built the Indianpolis speedway with bricks, Frank Seiberling the founder of Goodyear Tire & Rubber and Henry Bourne Joy the chairman of Packard Motor Company.

The book also delves into feuds along the way among army officers and between Nevada and Utah on the route of the national highway (should it head toward Los Angeles or San Francisco?)

Anyone interested in the Lewis & Clark expedition or the building of the first transcontinetal railroad should enjoy American Road. The book is an easy book to read certainly taking less than the two months the motorcade took!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Epic Journey, April 20, 2003

By	Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"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:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Automobile Drives the Future, January 6, 2003

By	T. Johnston (Stillwater, Oklahoma United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Pete Davies has done a spectacular job of capturing the enormity of this history-making undertaking. When you consider that less than 100 years ago there were less than 10 miles of paved road in the whole country and contrast that with today, it's mind-boggling what has been accomplished in such a short time.

And it's all because the automobile came along and people needed passable roads on which to drive them. The Trans-Continental Convoy held up an unavoidable magnifying glass for the citizens (and politicians) of the US so they would not need to ask, "What's wrong with our roads?" It became crystal clear. If you wanted your town and state to develop, you'd better get on the Good Roads bandwagon.

This book was particularly interesting to me because my father drove these trucks during World War One from the automotive centers in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana to Baltimore, using the Lincoln Highway. From Baltimore they were shipped overseas. In one of his letters, he remarked that it had been raining for three days straight, but they got by fairly well because most roads were gravel.

Although I'm sure the eastern most portions of the Lincoln Highway were probably in better repair than the western parts, The American Road gave me a good picture of what my father was up against.

The next time you drive down the Interstate, you can thank the foresight of some people in Detroit, the keen observation of a young Lt. Col. Dwight Eisenhower, and the sheer grit of the Convoy drivers, for showing the nation what had to be done.