Bibliograph

The longest line on the map, the United States, the Pan-American Highway, and the quest to link the Americas, Eric Rutkow

Type

Label

The longest line on the map, the United States, the Pan-American Highway, and the quest to link the Americas, Eric Rutkow

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 421-424)

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The longest line on the map

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1043489224

Responsibility statement

Eric Rutkow

Sub title

the United States, the Pan-American Highway, and the quest to link the Americas

Summary

Chronicles the epic quest to connect the Americas via the Pan American Highway, detailing how its construction and evolution reflected two centuries of divergent history"A dazzling account of the world's longest road, the Pan-American Highway, and the epic quest to link North and South America, a dramatic story of commerce, technology, politics, and the divergent fates of the Americas in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Pan-American Highway, monument to a century's worth of diplomacy and investment, education and engineering, scandal and sweat, is the longest road in the world, passable everywhere save the mythic Darien Gap that straddles Panama and Colombia. The highway's history, however, has long remained a mystery, a story scattered among government archives, private papers, and fading memories. In contrast to the Panama Canal and its vast literature, the Pan-American Highway--the United States' other great twentieth-century hemispheric infrastructure project--has become an orphan of the past, effectively erased from the story of the 'American Century.' [This book] uncovers this incredible tale for the first time and weaves it into a tapestry that fascinates, informs, and delights. Rutkow's narrative forces the reader to take seriously the question: Why couldn't the Americas have become a single region that 'is' and not two near irreconcilable halves that 'are'? Whether you're fascinated by the history of the Americas, or you've dreamed of driving around the globe, or you simply love world records and the stories behind them, The Longest Line on the Map is a riveting narrative, a lost epic of hemispheric scale."--Dust jacket

Table Of Contents

Part I: The rail. The magnificent conception ; The eagle and the octopus ; The route of volcanoes -- Interlude. Out of the muck -- Part II: The road. Good roads make good neighbors ; The far western front ; Freedom road ; The missing link

Classification