I've got a little money to spend on books

[bsmart]

And was thinking about picking up something on Roads.  I was looking at Amazon and based on my purchase history (railroads, ships, planes, US History stuff) it suggested

Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life  by Tom Lewis
The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways by Earl Swift
The Roads That Built America: The Incredible Story of the U.S. Interstate System by Dan McNichol

It also suggested

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger  by Marc Levinson

All received good to excellent ratings.  does anyone here have any opinions on these or other suggestions?

I'll also be picking up a couple Civil War and/or WWII books (I was an election judge yesterday and the money I make from that goes straight into 'the book fund' :jumping:

[yanksfan6129]

I really enjoyed The Big Roads. I haven't read the others, but The Box sounds interesting.

[DaBigE]

I have The Roads that Built America...only had a chance to page through it so far (in the few years I've owned it).   It looks good.

I would definitely recommend Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt.

[bugo]

If you can find them, check out the US 40 books.  I believe the original was written by a guy named Stewart.  The second book came out like 30 years later and included some of the pictures from the first book.

[agentsteel53]

If you can find them, check out the US 40 books.  I believe the original was written by a guy named Stewart.  The second book came out like 30 years later and included some of the pictures from the first book.

correct: George R. Stewart.  He also wrote a great pair of books on the Pan-American Highway in North America outside the Lower 48, in the early 50s.  One concentrating on the Alaska Highway, and the other from Mexico to Panama.

[AsphaltPlanet]

I would definitely recommend Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt.

Traffic was pretty good, but I found it got a little bit long-winded through the middle of the book.

You could also try The Bridge at Quebec by William Middleton.  ISBN: 0253337615.  It's a little bit technical, but a really interesting retelling of the events that saw the bridge fall into the river twice.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Bridge-Quebec-William-Middleton/dp/0253337615/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333595296&sr=8-1

[bsmart]

Thanks (and I'm still looking for more recommendations)  I've had the Rt 40 books for years.  I live 1 block off of US-40 Alternate or as we call it 'Main Street', in Middletown MD.  US 40 has always been part of my life whether it was Pulaski Highway going North out of Baltimore or 'Route 40' going west.  I think I need to dig them out and scan through them again

I have Traffic, my son gave it to me for Christmas a year ago I think.  I agree that it seemed to bog down in the middle.

And I can sympathise with the 'It's on the shelf Iand I have to get to it' concept.  I have more of those than I really want to admit to.  My wifes comment when I do pick up a new book is 'When are you going to read the ones you already have?'  But she doesn't complain when I do get more :-)

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

From the folks that provided the federal list of highway songs, we give you the highway bibliography.
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/biblio.cfm

[SidS1045]

Try American Autobahn by Mark Rask.  A great argument for killing off the obsession of the PTB in making everyone drive slower than conditions will allow.

[froggie]

I would definitely recommend Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt.

Concur (though I admit I haven't read fully through it yet).  Another good one is Still Stuck In Traffic by Anthony Downs.

As for WW2 books, a new one out that I'm thinking of getting is Growing Up Patton.  One of the co-authors is his grandson.

[bsmart]

Thanks for all the input.  For the record I just ordered

The Roads that built America;
The Box:
One Continuous Fight:The Retreat from Gettysburg by Eric Wittenberg;
From Brittany to The Reich: The 29th Division in Germany September- November 1944 by Joseph Balkoski

[hm insulators]

If you can find them, check out the US 40 books.  I believe the original was written by a guy named Stewart.  The second book came out like 30 years later and included some of the pictures from the first book.

correct: George R. Stewart.  He also wrote a great pair of books on the Pan-American Highway in North America outside the Lower 48, in the early 50s.  One concentrating on the Alaska Highway, and the other from Mexico to Panama.

A very long time ago, when I was living on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the public library in Lihue had George R. Stewart's US 40 book. I read that thing several times, then one day, I went to check it out again and they had discarded it. I never knew there was one that came out in the 1970s or whenever.