Interstate: Express Highway Politics 1939-1989 by Mark H. Rose

[relaxok]

Has anybody read the book in the subject line?

I was curious to find a book that talked about the political difficulties of building the interstate system, and was hoping this dealt heavily with it.  I can't find much information about it online.

I've read Divided Highways, which, while it was a great look at some of the personalities during the planning and building process (a bit TOO much about personalities and not enough nerdy details, to this roadgeek ) I would like something that details some of the opposition to the system and the political gamesmanship involved.

Any other books that look at that subject I'd be interested in hearing about recommendations for..

[J N Winkler]

I have seen copies of it but I haven't actually read it through.  It is essentially a scholarly book--I believe it's the author's doctoral dissertation revised and expanded for publication.  IIRC it has also gone through two editions.  There is another scholarly book by Bruce Seely, whose title escapes me but which deals with the early years of the BPR (now FHWA), which is an important and widely cited study of how the federal government used federal-aid funding, the system of expediters, and circulation of national standards to build a hegemony based on technical expertise.

In American highway historiography there are three main divides.  The first is between federal and state, the second is between national and local, and the third is between scholarly works and amateur history.  Books focusing on the federal aspect of highway provision (including scholarly books like Rose's and Seely's, and amateur works like Lewis' Divided Highways) tend to draw heavily on NARA sources and not to discuss with any great specificity how national-level policies played out at the local level.  Probably one of the best works dealing with the state-level aspect of things is Herbert Marshall Goodwin's doctoral dissertation California's Growing Freeway System (UCLA, 1969)--though you'd have to go to UMI for a copy since, AFAIK, it has never been published.  UMI also has Tim Davis' 700-page doctoral dissertation (UT, 1997) on the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway.  For the person interested in individual highways, HABS/HAER writeups (which are increasingly available through memory.loc.gov) are generally done to a high standard of scholarship.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

I've read it. It was originally Mark Rose's dissertation, from the 1970s, that focused on the lead up to the 1956 highway bill that "created" the interstate system we know and love. The only difference between the original book, Express Highway Politics 1939-1956, and the newer book was that Mark added a new chapter, at the end to encapsulate the construction of, rebellion against, and (then) current status of the US interstate system as of 1990.

At least the 1989 version has a cool cover (photo of an interchange with Evil Kenevil ramps). I think it's of I-95 & PA 90 (west approach of the Betsy Ross Bridge) in Philly, but have never been able to comfirm it.

[hobsini2]

The Evil Kenevil ramps used in the Blues Brothers movie was where what is now I-794 turns south at Lincoln Memorial Dr in Milwaukee.  I have not seen the photo you are talking about but those are the only Kenevil ramps i know of.