The Big Roads

Author : Earl Swift
Publisher : HMH
Page : 401 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2011-06-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9780547549132

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The Big Roads by Earl Swift Pdf

Discover the twists and turns of one of America’s great infrastructure projects with this “engrossing history of the creation of the U.S. interstate system” (Los Angeles Times). It’s become a part of the landscape that we take for granted, the site of rumbling eighteen-wheelers and roadside rest stops, a familiar route for commuters and vacationing families. But during the twentieth century, the interstate highway system dramatically changed the face of our nation. These interconnected roads—over 47,000 miles of them—are man-made wonders, economic pipelines, agents of sprawl, uniquely American symbols of escape and freedom, and an unrivaled public works accomplishment. Though officially named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower, this network of roadways has origins that reach all the way back to the World War I era, and The Big Roads—“the first thorough history of the expressway system” (The Washington Post)—tells the full story of how they came to be. From the speed demon who inspired a primitive web of dirt auto trails to the largely forgotten technocrats who planned the system years before Ike reached the White House to the city dwellers who resisted the concrete juggernaut when it bore down on their neighborhoods, this book reveals both the massive scale of this government engineering project, and the individual lives that have been transformed by it. A fast-paced history filled with fascinating detours, “the book is a road geek’s treasure—and everyone who travels the highways ought to know these stories” (Kirkus Reviews).

Author : Larry McMurtry
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0786229691

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Roads by Larry McMurtry Pdf

From earliest boyhood the American road has been part of my life -- central to it, I would even say. The ranch house in which I spent my first seven years sits only a mile from highway 281. We were thoroughly landlocked. I had no river to float on, to wonder about. Highway 281 was my river, its hidden reaches a mystery and an enticement. I began my life beside it and I want to drift down the entire length of it before I end this book . . .So begins Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry as he takes to the American roads of his past, rereading them as one might a favorite book and recording his observations along the way.

Author : William Least Heat-Moon
Publisher : Little, Brown
Page : 458 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2012-04-03
Category : Travel
ISBN : 9780316218542

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Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon Pdf

Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about "those little towns that get on the map -- if they get on at all -- only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi." His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.

Author : Amor Towles
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 593 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2021-10-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780735222373

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The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles Pdf

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER More than ONE MILLION copies sold A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick A New York Times Notable Book, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Bill Gates and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year “Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.” —The New York Times Book Review “A classic that we will read for years to come.” —Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna book club “Fantastic. Set in 1954, Towles uses the story of two brothers to show that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as we might hope.” —Bill Gates “A real joyride . . . elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.” —NPR The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. “Once again, I was wowed by Towles’s writing—especially because The Lincoln Highway is so different from A Gentleman in Moscow in terms of setting, plot, and themes. Towles is not a one-trick pony. Like all the best storytellers, he has range. He takes inspiration from famous hero’s journeys, including The Iliad, The Odyssey, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn, and Of Mice and Men. He seems to be saying that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as an interstate highway. But, he suggests, when something (or someone) tries to steer us off course, it is possible to take the wheel.” – Bill Gates

Author : Tawni O'Dell
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2001-01-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781101209271

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Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell Pdf

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE Funny and heartbreaking, this New York Times bestselling debut perfectly captures the maddening confusion of adolescence and the prickly nature of family with irony and unerring honesty. Harley Altmyer should be in college having the time of his life. He should be free from the backwards Pennsylvania coal town he calls home, with its lack of jobs and no sense of humor. Instead, he’s constantly reminded of just how messed up everything is... Harley’s mother is in prison for killing his father, so he’s in charge of bringing up his younger sisters and working two jobs to pay the bills—and that doesn’t leave a lot of time for distractions. But lately, he’s getting more and more sidetracked by lusting after Callie Mercer, his middle-aged neighbor. As he struggles to keep it together, things begin to spin out of control. Soon Harley finds that as shattered as his family is, there are still more crushing surprises in store. “In Harley, O’Dell has created a hero who’s heartbreakingly believable; like Holden Caulfield, he uses caustic humor to hide his pain. Readers will care very much about him and his future, if indeed he has one.”—St. Petersburg Times

Author : Ingrid Schaffner
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : ART
ISBN : 379135292X

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Jason Rhoades by Ingrid Schaffner Pdf

This volume examines the remarkable legacy of Jason Rhoades's complex body of work. The Los Angeles-based sculptor Jason Rhoades was widely celebrated for sprawling, ambitious, and daring installations, editions, and events prior to his untimely death in 2006. Although he was far better known in Europe than America, many of Rhoades's peers considered him to be one of the most important artists of his generation. In his work, cultural touchstones ranged from high to low, including the artists Marcel Duchamp, Donald Judd, and Paul McCarthy, race-car driver Ayrton Senna, actor Kevin Costner, the big bang, Swedish erotica, and the California gold rush. This volume, accompanying the first US survey of his works, centers on four highly sensory, large-scale pieces that incorporate neon, radio, smoke rings, and even a model train into large environments that engulf the viewer. These four canonical installations are navigated via five critical essays that help unify Rhoades's labyrinthine, often-overwhelming methods into the single overarching project he envisioned. The book also features illustrations of each major work dating from 1991 to 2006, accompanied by explanatory texts that illuminate Rhoades's materials and methods as both highly accessible and artistically complex.

Author : Michael Herman
Publisher : iUniverse
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2011-10-27
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9781462051946

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No Roads to Follow by Michael Herman Pdf

When people are searching for direction or meaning in their life, they say that they are looking for “a road to follow.” In the spring of 1994, author Michael Herman was searching for a new road. Dissatisfied with his job and feeling unsuccessful, Michael began what some people considered unthinkable. Under the watchful eyes of a small crowd of friends and onlookers, he embarked on a 127-day solo sea kayak expedition of the Great Lakes. His goal was simple: to raise money and support for the cancer society by kayaking Canada’s biggest lakes. Beginning in Thunder Bay, Ontario, as the ice was melting on Lake Superior, his trip included more than the physical landscape he traversed. Put to the test by open-water crossings, ferocious storms, illness, betrayal, and self doubt, Michael’s journey is nothing less than extraordinary. Part memoir, part adventure, and part love story, No Roads to Follow shares one man’s 3,200-kilometer expedition across the Great Lakes and his journey inward as he learns to define the measure of personal success.

Author : Jarrett Wrisley,Paolo Vitaletti
Publisher : Clarkson Potter
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2020-11-03
Category : Cooking
ISBN : 9781984822321

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The Roads to Rome by Jarrett Wrisley,Paolo Vitaletti Pdf

IACP AWARD FINALIST • An epic, exquisitely photographed road trip through the Italian countryside, exploring the ancient traditions, master artisans, and over 80 storied recipes that built the iconic cuisine of Rome When former food writer Jarrett Wrisley and chef Paolo Vitaletti decided to open an Italian restaurant, they didn’t just take a trip to Rome. They spent years crisscrossing the surrounding countryside, eating, drinking, and traveling down whatever road they felt like taking. Only after they opened Appia, an authentic Roman trattoria in Bangkok of all places, did they realize that their epic journey had all the makings of a book. So they went back. And this time, they took a photographer. Roman cuisine doesn’t come from Rome, exactly, but from the roads to Rome—the trade routes that brought foods from all over Italy to the capital. In The Roads to Rome, Jarrett and Paolo weave their way between Roman kitchens and through the countryside of Lazio, Umbria, and Emilia-Romagna, meeting farmers and artisans and learning about the origins of the ingredients that gave rise to such iconic dishes as pasta Cacio e Pepe and Spaghetti all’Amatriciana. They go straight to source of the beloved dishes of the countryside, highlighting recipes for everything from Vignarola bursting with sautéed artichokes, fava beans, and spring peas with guanciale to Porchetta made with crisp-roasted pork belly and loin. Five years in the making, part-cookbook and part-travelogue, The Roads to Rome is an ode to the butchers, fishermen, and other artisans who feed the city, and how their history and culture come to the plate.

Author : Tom Lewis
Publisher : Penguin Group
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Interstate Highway System
ISBN : 0140267719

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Divided Highways by Tom Lewis Pdf

In Divided Highways, Tom Lewis tells the monumental story of the largest engineered structure ever built: the Interstate Highway System. Here is one of the great untold tales of American enterprise, recounted entirely through the stories of the human beings who thought up, mapped out, poured, paved - and tried to stop - the Interstates. Conceived and spearheaded by Thomas "the Chief" MacDonald, the iron-willed bureaucrat from the muddy farmlands of Iowa who rose to unrivaled power, the highway system was propelled forward through the pathbreaking efforts of brilliant engineers, argued over by politicians of every ideological and moral stripe, reviled by the citizens whose lives it devastated, and lauded as the greatest public works project in U.S. history.

Author : Victoria Erickson
Publisher : New Leaf Distribution
Page : 191 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2024-06-10
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9780994784360

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Rhythms and Roads by Victoria Erickson Pdf

Author : Joe Moran
Publisher : Profile Books
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2010-12-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9781847654939

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On Roads by Joe Moran Pdf

In this history of roads and what they have meant to the people who have driven them, one of Britain's favourite cultural historians reveals how a relatively simple road system turned into a maze-like pattern of roundabouts, flyovers, and spaghetti junctions. Using a unique blend of travel writing, anthropology, history and social observation, he explores how Britain's roads have their roots in unexpected places, from Napoleon's role in the numbering system to the surprising origin of sat-nav. Full of quirky nuggets of history, such as the day trips organised to see the construction of the M1 and the 2.5m Mills and Boons used to build the M6 Toll Road, On Roads also celebrates innovators whose work we take for granted, such as the designers of the road sign system. On subjects ranging from speed limits to driving on the left, and the 'non-places where we stop to the unwritten laws of traffic jams, these hidden stories have never been told together, until now.

Author : Joseph Bruchac
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2018-10-23
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9780735228887

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Two Roads by Joseph Bruchac Pdf

A boy discovers his Native American heritage in this Depression-era tale of identity and friendship by the author of Code Talker It's 1932, and twelve-year-old Cal Black and his Pop have been riding the rails for years after losing their farm in the Great Depression. Cal likes being a "knight of the road" with Pop, even if they're broke. But then Pop has to go to Washington, DC--some of his fellow veterans are marching for their government checks, and Pop wants to make sure he gets his due--and Cal can't go with him. So Pop tells Cal something he never knew before: Pop is actually a Creek Indian, which means Cal is too. And Pop has decided to send Cal to a government boarding school for Native Americans in Oklahoma called the Challagi School. At school, the other Creek boys quickly take Cal under their wings. Even in the harsh, miserable conditions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school, he begins to learn about his people's history and heritage. He learns their language and customs. And most of all, he learns how to find strength in a group of friends who have nothing beyond each other.

Author : John Cary
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 478 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 1798
Category : Roads
ISBN : OXFORD:590207582

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Cary's New itinerary; or, An accurate delineation of the great roads ... throughout England and Wales; with many of the principal roads in Scotland [&c.]. by John Cary Pdf

Author : Peter Frankopan
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 688 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2016-02-16
Category : History
ISBN : 9781101946336

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The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan Pdf

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Far more than a history of the Silk Roads, this book is truly a revelatory new history of the world, promising to destabilize notions of where we come from and where we are headed next. "A rare book that makes you question your assumptions about the world.” —The Wall Street Journal From the Middle East and its political instability to China and its economic rise, the vast region stretching eastward from the Balkans across the steppe and South Asia has been thrust into the global spotlight in recent years. Frankopan teaches us that to understand what is at stake for the cities and nations built on these intricate trade routes, we must first understand their astounding pasts. Frankopan realigns our understanding of the world, pointing us eastward. It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures and religions. From the rise and fall of empires to the spread of Buddhism and the advent of Christianity and Islam, right up to the great wars of the twentieth century—this book shows how the fate of the West has always been inextricably linked to the East. Also available: The New Silk Roads, a timely exploration of the dramatic and profound changes our world is undergoing right now—as seen from the perspective of the rising powers of the East.

Author : Jo Guldi
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 285 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2012-01-01
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780674264137

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Roads to Power by Jo Guldi Pdf

Roads to Power tells the story of how Britain built the first nation connected by infrastructure, how a libertarian revolution destroyed a national economy, and how technology caused strangers to stop speaking. In early eighteenth-century Britain, nothing but dirt track ran between most towns. By 1848 the primitive roads were transformed into a network of highways connecting every village and island in the nation—and also dividing them in unforeseen ways. The highway network led to contests for control over everything from road management to market access. Peripheries like the Highlands demanded that centralized government pay for roads they could not afford, while English counties wanted to be spared the cost of underwriting roads to Scotland. The new network also transformed social relationships. Although travelers moved along the same routes, they occupied increasingly isolated spheres. The roads were the product of a new form of government, the infrastructure state, marked by the unprecedented control bureaucrats wielded over decisions relating to everyday life. Does information really work to unite strangers? Do markets unite nations and peoples in common interests? There are lessons here for all who would end poverty or design their markets around the principle of participation. Guldi draws direct connections between traditional infrastructure and the contemporary collapse of the American Rust Belt, the decline of American infrastructure, the digital divide, and net neutrality. In the modern world, infrastructure is our principal tool for forging new communities, but it cannot outlast the control of governance by visionaries.