Overview

All roads begin somewhere and today's U. S. highway system began with an exploratory, cross-country ride, led by 28-year-old Army lieutenant colonel, Dwight Eisenhower. This is the story of that coast-to-coast journey and how the dream of connecting America with roads began. Before he led the liberation of Europe, before he became our nation's 34th President, Dwight D. Eisenhower's made a road trip in 1919 from Washington D.C. to California. The expedition proved to be a crucial chapter in the history of America as it laid the groundwork to make automobile travel the fastest and easiest way to move around the country, also setting in motion the nation's future love affair with cheap crude. The 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy of eighty-one trucks and other military vehicles traveled more than 3,000 precarious miles along the most famous road of the day, the Lincoln Highway, which ran between New York City and San Francisco. World War I had illustrated the importance of being able to move large amounts of troops and equipment quickly over long distances, and Eisenhower's mission was to evaluate whether the country's emerging network of paved roadways could handle such a task. It was an experience Eisenhower would never forget. Decades later, as president, he drew on that experience to push through the Interstate Highway Act of 1956. Ike's Road Trip adds an important chapter to the story of the midwestern president who is often seen as ""America's grandfather."" Eisenhower will also be seen as a modern visionary during a pivotal moment: his persistent trust in cheap petroleum proved to be a blueprint for modern America as he helped facilitate the most significant energy transition of the twentieth century. Today, we are experiencing perhaps the most important energy transition since Eisenhower's day-from petroleum to renewables-and that change will require minds as equally visionary as his.

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9781567927153

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Reviews

“Ike’s Road Trip is a great ride in every sense. Combining deep research with stylistic verve, Brian C. Black takes us back to a formative moment in the American Century, when a young Dwight D. Eisenhower led a convoy of military vehicles across the United States. The experience transformed Eisenhower, and would ultimately transform America as well, with ramifications for our current moment. This is history at its most engaging.” —Ted Widmer, author of Lincoln on the Verge “No president did more to cement America’s attachment to driving than Eisenhower, and nothing did more to convince Ike of the value of a national highway system than his 1919 military convoy from New York to San Francisco. Brian C. Black tells the story of that journey in the context of American energy, transport, economic, and military history in crisp and convincing prose. Deploying a talent shared with Eisenhower, Black recognizes the links between the small details and the larger picture—none larger than the history of energy transitions.” —J.R. McNeill, author of The Webs of Humankind “An epic story—and a reminder that we desperately need twenty-first century visionaries who will do as much to put us off the hydrocarbon road.” —Bill McKibben, author The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon “Everyone loves a road trip, and Brian C. Black’s vivid account of Dwight Eisenhower's convoy across America in 1919 is both fun and enlightening. Ike’s arduous, adventure-filled trek ultimately inspired a revolution in the way we live.” —Adam Rome, author of The Bulldozer in the Countryside “Getting an army convoy across the United States in 1919 through dust and dirt, mud and non-existing roads was no small feat. Getting the United States to adopt a transportation system based on ever-growing usage of petroleum was a monumental shift with far-reaching consequences. In this fast-paced and well-told book, Brian C. Black illuminates how the convoy and the larger story are intertwined and what all of this means today, in the age of energy transitions. Ike’s Road Trip is an accessible and insightful book whose issues resonate today more than ever.” —Thomas Zeller, author of Consuming Landscapes “Ike’s Road Trip is an insightful and enjoyable take on America’s long love affair with cars and roads. Black deftly guides readers through the 1919 convoy's influence on a young Dwight Eisenhower and its role in inspiring Ike’s 1956 interstate highway program. In clear and conversational writing, Black illuminates an important tenet of energy history—how fossil fuel use has had profound impacts on American life and culture.” —Raechel Lutz, co-editor of American Energy Cinema “Brian C. Black’s account of a special moment in Dwight Eisenhower’s storied life—the 1919 cross country military convoy—is an eye-opener. That experience foreshadowed an energy transition premised on unlimited access to fossil fuels and Eisenhower’s future advocacy of a national highway system. Because Black salts his narrative with reminders of our contemporary energy transition, Ike’s Road Trip enriches Eisenhower historiography and encourages readers to ponder energy choices they will face.” —Michael J. Birkner, editor of Democracy’s Shield

“Ike’s Road Trip is a great ride in every sense. Combining deep research with stylistic verve, Brian C. Black takes us back to a formative moment in the American Century, when a young Dwight D. Eisenhower led a convoy of military vehicles across the United States. The experience transformed Eisenhower, and would ultimately transform America as well, with ramifications for our current moment. This is history at its most engaging.” —Ted Widmer, author of Lincoln on the Verge “No president did more to cement America’s attachment to driving than Eisenhower, and nothing did more to convince Ike of the value of a national highway system than his 1919 military convoy from New York to San Francisco. Brian C. Black tells the story of that journey in the context of American energy, transport, economic, and military history in crisp and convincing prose. Deploying a talent shared with Eisenhower, Black recognizes the links between the small details and the larger picture—none larger than the history of energy transitions.” —J.R. McNeill, author of The Webs of Humankind “An epic story—and a reminder that we desperately need twenty-first century visionaries who will do as much to put us off the hydrocarbon road.” —Bill McKibben, author The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon “Everyone loves a road trip, and Brian C. Black’s vivid account of Dwight Eisenhower's convoy across America in 1919 is both fun and enlightening. Ike’s arduous, adventure-filled trek ultimately inspired a revolution in the way we live.” —Adam Rome, author of The Bulldozer in the Countryside “Getting an army convoy across the United States in 1919 through dust and dirt, mud and non-existing roads was no small feat. Getting the United States to adopt a transportation system based on ever-growing usage of petroleum was a monumental shift with far-reaching consequences. In this fast-paced and well-told book, Brian C. Black illuminates how the convoy and the larger story are intertwined and what all of this means today, in the age of energy transitions. Ike’s Road Trip is an accessible and insightful book whose issues resonate today more than ever.” —Thomas Zeller, author of Consuming Landscapes “Ike’s Road Trip is an insightful and enjoyable take on America’s long love affair with cars and roads. Black deftly guides readers through the 1919 convoy's influence on a young Dwight Eisenhower and its role in inspiring Ike’s 1956 interstate highway program. In clear and conversational writing, Black illuminates an important tenet of energy history—how fossil fuel use has had profound impacts on American life and culture.” —Raechel Lutz, co-editor of American Energy Cinema “Brian C. Black’s account of a special moment in Dwight Eisenhower’s storied life—the 1919 cross country military convoy—is an eye-opener. That experience foreshadowed an energy transition premised on unlimited access to fossil fuels and Eisenhower’s future advocacy of a national highway system. Because Black salts his narrative with reminders of our contemporary energy transition, Ike’s Road Trip enriches Eisenhower historiography and encourages readers to ponder energy choices they will face.” —Michael J. Birkner, editor of Democracy’s Shield “Brian C. Black’s wonderful telling of Ike’s Road Trip introduces readers to a little-known story about an American icon of the twentieth century. It does so within a fascinating context of breathtaking changes in technology, changes in American patterns of travel, and reminds readers of the human stories about the cars we drive, the oil that feeds them, and the roads we travel.” —Edward T. Linenthal, author of Sacred Ground “Brian C. Black takes his readers on a thrilling ride through the life of Dwight D. Eisenhower, along the greatest road-building endeavor of all time, and into American petro-modernity.” —Tyler Priest, author of The Offshore Imperative “In the summer of 1919, a young Dwight D. Eisenhower departed on one of the most consequential cross-country journeys in modern U.S. history. As Brian C. Black brilliantly shows us, the First Transcontinental Motor Train symbolized the coming of the motor age, highlighted the depressing condition of the nation’s roadways, and served as a harbinger of one of the great achievements of Eisenhower’s later presidency: the Interstate Highway System. Ike’s Road Trip is a timely meditation on a monumental energy transition whose consequences remain very much with us today.” —Paul S. Sutter, author of Driven Wild “Most accounts of Eisenhower’s vision of the U.S. Interstate Highway System begin with his experience of the Reichsautobahn during World War II, but Ike’s Road Trip takes us back to 1919 and an earlier, but equally formative experience for the future five-star general. That summer, as a not quite thirty-year old lieutenant colonel, Ike spent sixty-two days as a member of the Army’s First Transcontinental Motor Convoy, a company of nearly three hundred enlisted men and officers who piloted a fleet of trucks, cars, and motorcycles across 3200 arduous miles. Following in the wheel ruts of such automobile pioneers as Horatio Nelson Jackson (1903) and Alice Huyler Ramsey (1909), Ike’s convoy was not the first to make the coast-to-coast journey, but no previous trip had mustered comparable promotional ballyhoo and continuous front-page coverage. Nor was there a cross-country excursion that would prove so consequential when, thirty-seven years later, President Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 into law. Part picaresque, part military history, Ike’s Road Trip is also a cautionary tale about the origins of our oil and auto dependency and their twenty-first century consequences.” —Gabrielle Esperdy, author of American Autopia

“Ike’s Road Trip is a great ride in every sense. Combining deep research with stylistic verve, Brian C. Black takes us back to a formative moment in the American Century, when a young Dwight D. Eisenhower led a convoy of military vehicles across the United States. The experience transformed Eisenhower, and would ultimately transform America as well, with ramifications for our current moment. This is history at its most engaging.” —Ted Widmer, author of Lincoln on the Verge “An epic story—and a reminder that we desperately need twenty-first century visionaries who will do as much to put us off the hydrocarbon road.” —Bill McKibben, author The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon “Although the energy transition began before the Interstate Highway System was initiated, Ike understood from the transcontinental convoy of 1919 and during the fight for the German Autobahn during WWII that no modern society could exist without the capacity to link itself into one cohesive country.” —Susan Eisenhower, author of How Ike Led “Deploying a talent shared with Eisenhower, Black recognizes the links between the small details and the larger picture—none larger than the history of energy transitions.” —J. R. McNeill, author of The Webs of Humankind “Fun and enlightening.” —Adam Rome, author of The Bulldozer in the Countryside “An accessible and insightful book whose issues resonate today more than ever.” —Thomas Zeller, author of Consuming Landscapes “An eye-opener. Ike’s Road Trip enriches Eisenhower historiography and encourages readers to ponder energy choices they will face.” —Michael J. Birkner, editor of Democracy’s Shield “Brian C. Black’s wonderful telling of Ike’s Road Trip introduces readers to a little-known story about an American icon of the twentieth century.” —Edward T. Linenthal, author of Sacred Ground “An insightful and enjoyable take on America’s long love affair with cars and roads.” —Raechel Lutz, co-editor of American Energy Cinema “Brian C. Black takes his readers on a thrilling ride through the life of Dwight D. Eisenhower, along the greatest road-building endeavor of all time.” —Tyler Priest, author of The Offshore Imperative “A timely meditation on a monumental energy transition whose consequences remain very much with us today.” —Paul S. Sutter, author of Driven Wild “A cautionary tale about the origins of our oil and auto dependency and their twenty-first century consequences.” —Gabrielle Esperdy, author of American Autopia

Author Information

Dr. Brian C. Black is Distinguished Professor of History and Environmental Studies at Penn State Altoona, where he also served for over a decade as Head of Arts and Humanities. Recognized as a global expert on energy and petroleum history, he is the author of more than a dozen books, which include: Petrolia: The Landscape of America’s First Oil Boom; Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History; and To Have and Have Not: Energy in World History. His writing on energy has appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, USA TODAY, the Conversation, and the New York Times. He divides his time between central Pennsylvania and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

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