Motoring: The Highway Experience in America

In their latest collaboration (after 2004's Lots of Parking: Land Use is a Car Culture), University of Illinois landscape architecture professor Jakle and Illinois Historic Preservation Agency researcher Sculle take a detailed look at the history of the American highway, and the cascade of commercial and sociological changes it precipitated. Providing a driver's-eye-view of ""motoring,"" Jakle and Sculle follow the development of the modern road system, from the first ""named"" highways through federally-subsidized state departments, focusing on ""tourist travel, the source of motoring's early exhilaration, which energized much of what came after, such as commuting and the journey to shop."" They look also at attendant industries like repair shops and gas stations, fast-food restaurants and motels, amusement parks and fresh fruit stands that collectively make the roadside ""a place of legendary recreation."" Though equally thorough, subsequent chapters on truck culture and bus travel prove less engrossing; otherwise, a compelling read about America's fascination with the open road. 75 b&w photos.