Dream Road to Pan America: A Century in Pursuit of the World's Longest Highway
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Description
An expansive and subversive history of the Pan-American Highway.
A century after the Pan-American Highway was first conceived, its story remains largely unknown—even to the hundreds of motorists who annually attempt the 30,000-kilometer drive from far northern Alaska to the tip of Tierra del Fuego. There is more to the highway, however, than the persistent allure of the open road. In Dream Road to Pan America, historian Shawn William Miller unveils a larger tale of lofty ideals and bedrock greed, romantic adventure and pragmatic diplomacy, immigrant desperation and Indigenous resistance.
This book journeys to the early 1920s when everyday Americans invented the idea of a road that would spread fraternity, democracy, and prosperity across the hemisphere. It looks at the commercial and geopolitical interests that shaped the highway—often with little concern for those living along its margins—and explains why the road became an escape route for millions of migrants rather than a corridor for tourists. Miller contends that the highway’s troubled past points to an unresolved future, offering insights into the growing costs of continuing down well-worn paths.
Praise for Dream Road to Pan America: A Century in Pursuit of the World's Longest Highway
"Vigorous history of a highway intended to run the length of the Americas, as yet unbuilt.”
— Kirkus Reviews
"The reader is not only provided with a history of a highway; they are also provided with history itself."
— CounterPunch
“Miller brings an informed skepticism to his colorful, thorough history of the Pan-American Highway. . . . [He] deftly describes the fascinating mixture of public and private diplomacy, of security interests and profit motives, that occasioned this pioneering era of roadbuilding.”
— Foreign Affairs
“[Miller] shifts the story of the Pan-American Highway towards the middle ground, away from the US triumphalism evident in the extant literature. He reasonably views the highway not as a simple line on a map, but as part of a regional network of roads. Moreover, he writes with the evident enthusiasm of a motoring enthusiast, yet one conscious of the dire environmental consequences of road-building. The book marks a fine addition to the environmental history of Latin America; it also contributes insights into a neglected aspect of inter-American relations.”
— International Affairs
