highways

James Flink's The Automobile Age (Cambridge: MIT Press 93), Ruth Brandon's Automobile: How The Car Changed Life (London: Macmillan 02) and The Automobile Revolution: The Impact of an Industry (Chapel Hill: Uni of North Carolina Press 82) by James Laux & Jean-Pierre Bardou are outstanding studies of the world made by cars. 

There's another perspective in David Halberstam's superb The Fifties (New York: Villard 94) and Peter Ling's America & the Automobile: Technology, Reform & Social Change (Manchester: Manchester Uni Press 89). David Kruger's The Electric Car & the Burden of History (New Brunswick: Rutgers Uni Press 00) is a cogent exploration of a technology that didn't last the distance.

John Rae's The Road & Car in American Life (Cambridge: MIT Press 71) and The Automobile & American Culture (Ann Arbor: Uni of Michigan Press 83) edited by David Lewis & Laurence Goldstein are landmark studies. The 1998 paper by Ishaq Nadiri & Theofanis Mamuneas on Contribution of Highway Capital to Output & Productivity Growth in the US is suggestive.

Volumes in the 'Road & American Culture' series (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni Press) edited by John Jakle are also suggestive. These include Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age (99), The Motel in America (96) and The Gas Station in America (94).

Development of US highway system since 1924 is described here.




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