
The Big Roads
The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways
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Narrated by:
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Rob Shapiro
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By:
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Earl Swift
From author Earl Swift comes the surprising history of the U.S. interstate system, a fascinating route through the dreams, discoveries, and protests that shaped these mighty roads.
©2011 Earl Swift (P)2011 TantorListeners also enjoyed...




















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The narration was excellent and up to Audible's always high standards.
I Learned much about Our Interstate Highway System
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Excellent Book on a Surprisingly Interesting Topic
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Have you listened to any of Rob Shapiro’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I have not but I thought he did an outstanding job. His pacing and inflection was very good, and I found the tamber of his voice incredibly pleasant and engaging.Any additional comments?
A wonderful book, adroitly navigating the history of our major highway system - a system most of us take for granted. The aptly-named Swift guides the reader through the earliest calls for better roads, introducing us to invidivuals who saw the roads as places for bicycles well before horseless carriages became all the rage. He continues by introducing the prime movers who gave eventual birth (after a decades long gestation) to the interstate and all its loops, whirls, spurs, and bypasses. These are mostly not names you know, and he manages to juxtapose the human scale and importance of the endeavor (both from the points of view of the highway men, public servants, and engineers who conceived of the project to the citizens either clamoring for or being displaced by the promised roads) with the sheer vastness of project in miles, materials, and dollars. As a result, the reader is constantly amazed anew at each new detail, each problem surmounted, each nuance that had to be maneuvered, all the more so since we drive but rarely really look at our interstate system. And while Swift obviously admires the scope of these men's ambition and their technical capability, he also gives voice to communities torn asunder by new lanes of traffic, how the rise of the automobile irrevocably changed American life (and not always for the better), and the current state of disrepair that much of American road infrastructure is steadily decaying into. All in all, a great book and one that puts the road most travelled into the well-deserved spotlight.Fantastic history of the road most travelled
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Fascinating
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Historical
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Entertaining Book
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Interesting history, well written and read
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Very detailed
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The book gives quite the in depth back story on how the idea of a nation wide road system came to be. I found it interesting to learn about it. I had thought the book would have given a little more history of how the interstate system was actually constructed, but it gave a general overview.
A Good History
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This book cures taking our interstates for granted
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