- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (Sep 15 1992)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312082851
- ISBN-13: 978-0312082857
- Product Dimensions: 26.4 x 21.1 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 885 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #670,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"Like others before him, from John Steinbeck to Charles Kuralt, Michael Wallis went on the road in search of America. The result is...a colorful paean to a most romantic highway."--The New York Times
"Since the do-gooders abolished public hangings, the only show in town worth watching is the traffic on Highway 66 heading West and Route 66: The Mother Road is the best book we have to tell us what we are seeing."--Stanley Marsh III, Owner, Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas
"This story of our nation's most famous highway keeps alive an important part of American history. It's a delight."--Ted Drewes, Owner, Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, St. Louis, Missouri
"Route 66 changed the course of my whole life. I will treasure my trip forever, and this book recaptures very vividly every memory."--Bobby Troup, Songwriter, "Get Your Kicks on Route 66"
"The tone of Route 66: The Mother Road is as friendly as that of a big diner, where the conversations of people who have just met drift through the air like the steam from their coffee cups."--Phil Patton, author, Open Road
"Any of you who love nostalgia will love Route 66: The Mother Road as much as I do."--Tony Hillerman
"A love letter to the road...He wraps the history of the route around pictures of it and lets the people who have traveled and lived along the Mother Road tell their stories."--Kelli Pryor, Entertainment Weekly
"Since the do-gooders abolished public hangings, the only show in town worth watching is the traffic on Highway 66 heading West and Route 66: The Mother Road is the best book we have to tell us what we are seeing."--Stanley Marsh III, Owner, Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas
"This story of our nation's most famous highway keeps alive an important part of American history. It's a delight."--Ted Drewes, Owner, Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, St. Louis, Missouri
"Route 66 changed the course of my whole life. I will treasure my trip forever, and this book recaptures very vividly every memory."--Bobby Troup, Songwriter, "Get Your Kicks on Route 66"
"The tone of Route 66: The Mother Road is as friendly as that of a big diner, where the conversations of people who have just met drift through the air like the steam from their coffee cups."--Phil Patton, author, Open Road
"Any of you who love nostalgia will love Route 66: The Mother Road as much as I do."--Tony Hillerman
"A love letter to the road...He wraps the history of the route around pictures of it and lets the people who have traveled and lived along the Mother Road tell their stories."--Kelli Pryor, Entertainment Weekly
Book Description
The definitive book on the most famous road in American history-- now published in paperback to celebrate the highway's 66th anniversary.
It began in the early 1920s with a vision of a paved highway that would connect Chicago to Los Angeles and the West. By the time of its completion, the road would cover over 2,400 miles, three time zones, and eight states. It would link the windy shores of Lake Michigan with the waters of the Pacific Ocean-- a two-lane road rolling together through the great American Southwest, tying together the vestiges of America's pioneer passages into one meandering and magnificent highway.
Route 66. It was the road of dreamers and ramblers, drifters and writers: the road of John Steinbeck, Woody Guthrie, and Jack Kerouac. A ribbon of American highway that transported the Okies, driven from their land as storms of dust swept across their farms, to the promise of California. It was also the highway of commerce-- of automated ice-cream stands and old "no-tell" motels, salty truck stops, and a neon allure. Phillips 66, Coca-Cola, Burma Shave. It was Bobby Troup's "Get Your Kicks on Route 66." It was the lights and the breeze and the radio and the litany of towns: Joplin, Flagstaff, San Bernardino. A smilin', "Hi-how're-y'all-doin-t'night" big-boned waitress and a steamin' cup of coffee. Route 66, the passage west, the road of flight, the Mother Road.
After seventeen years of research, Michael Wallis has compiled the definitive book on the most legendary road in American history. Wallis weaves together a rich tapestry of eight decades that chronicles the road from its founding to its demise with the advent of the interstate system, and to its current unprecedented revival. Route 66 is also a pictorial journey of nearly three hundred images that detail the highway's history, roadside diners, motels, forgotten towns, and most impressively, its people.
Two years after its nostalgia-inspiring hardcover publication, Michael Wallis's bestselling Route 66 finally appears here in its first paperback edition. It is a book, unlike any in recent social history, that has spawned a national movement, brought new hope to those pockets of the American prairies where hope had long since vanished, and revived a dying American road.
It began in the early 1920s with a vision of a paved highway that would connect Chicago to Los Angeles and the West. By the time of its completion, the road would cover over 2,400 miles, three time zones, and eight states. It would link the windy shores of Lake Michigan with the waters of the Pacific Ocean-- a two-lane road rolling together through the great American Southwest, tying together the vestiges of America's pioneer passages into one meandering and magnificent highway.
Route 66. It was the road of dreamers and ramblers, drifters and writers: the road of John Steinbeck, Woody Guthrie, and Jack Kerouac. A ribbon of American highway that transported the Okies, driven from their land as storms of dust swept across their farms, to the promise of California. It was also the highway of commerce-- of automated ice-cream stands and old "no-tell" motels, salty truck stops, and a neon allure. Phillips 66, Coca-Cola, Burma Shave. It was Bobby Troup's "Get Your Kicks on Route 66." It was the lights and the breeze and the radio and the litany of towns: Joplin, Flagstaff, San Bernardino. A smilin', "Hi-how're-y'all-doin-t'night" big-boned waitress and a steamin' cup of coffee. Route 66, the passage west, the road of flight, the Mother Road.
After seventeen years of research, Michael Wallis has compiled the definitive book on the most legendary road in American history. Wallis weaves together a rich tapestry of eight decades that chronicles the road from its founding to its demise with the advent of the interstate system, and to its current unprecedented revival. Route 66 is also a pictorial journey of nearly three hundred images that detail the highway's history, roadside diners, motels, forgotten towns, and most impressively, its people.
Two years after its nostalgia-inspiring hardcover publication, Michael Wallis's bestselling Route 66 finally appears here in its first paperback edition. It is a book, unlike any in recent social history, that has spawned a national movement, brought new hope to those pockets of the American prairies where hope had long since vanished, and revived a dying American road.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Route 66. Just the name is magic. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Route 66. Just the name is magic. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A lyric journey with 66's poet laureate,
This review is from: Route 66: The Mother Road (Paperback)
If you ever wanted to make a real journey to a place that's both real and imagined, a place in your heart as much as in your geography, and if that place happens to be Route 66, take this book.Michael Wallis is the unofficial poet laureate of 66 and this book reflects exactly what the Mother Road meant to America and can mean to you. He's covered every inch of it, and he knows where it leads.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best at Capturing the Essence of the Mother Road,
By
This review is from: Route 66: The Mother Road (Paperback)
MIchael and Suzanne have done the best job of capturing why so many people are still fascinated by a ribbon of concrete that didn't even cross the entire continent. As he so eloquently states, it's not the road, its the people along the road. This is a must read, not just for all Mother Road fans, but for anyone who is interested in a genuine slice of Americana.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
still the best book on route 66,
By Phyllis Herring (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Route 66, 75th Anniversary Edition: The Mother Road (Paperback)
I read Wallis' original book some years ago and now he has offered us an update. It is now 75 years since the highway numbering system went into effect, and more than ten years since the original book came out. What we get is an extra chapter in the back outlining some of the many changes that have occured in the past decade. Some old friends of the road have passed away; and a whole lot of new ones added. One gripe. We don't hear how Angel and Juan in Seligman are doing these days. Experienced 66 hands will know who I mean--the rest of you, make sure you find out about those two fine gentlemen. This, new, book will help you on your way. Highly recommended.
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