The Longest Line on the Map: The United States, the Pan-American Highway, and the Quest to Link the Americas
Written by Eric Rutkow
Narrated by Jacques Roy
4/5
()
About this audiobook
The Pan-American Highway, monument to a century’s worth of diplomacy and investment, education and engineering, scandal and sweat, is the longest road in the world, passable everywhere save the mythic Darien Gap that straddles Panama and Colombia. The highway’s history, however, has long remained a mystery, a story scattered among government archives, private papers, and fading memories. In contrast to the Panama Canal and its vast literature, the Pan-American Highway—the United States’ other great twentieth-century hemispheric infrastructure project—has become an orphan of the past, effectively erased from the story of the “American Century.”
The Longest Line on the Map uncovers this incredible tale for the first time and weaves it into a tapestry that fascinates, informs, and delights. Rutkow’s narrative forces the reader to take seriously the question: Why couldn’t the Americas have become a single region that “is” and not two near irreconcilable halves that “are”? Whether you’re fascinated by the history of the Americas, or you’ve dreamed of driving around the globe, or you simply love world records and the stories behind them, The Longest Line on the Map is a riveting narrative, a lost epic of hemispheric scale.
Eric Rutkow
Eric Rutkow is an assistant professor of history at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, and the author of The Longest Line on the Map. His first book, American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation (2012), received the Association of American Publishers’ PROSE Award for US history and was named one of the top books of the year by Smithsonian magazine. He earned his BA and PhD from Yale and his JD from Harvard.
Related to The Longest Line on the Map
Related audiobooks
The Routes of Man: How Roads are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Crack in the Edge of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5River Horse: A Voyage Across America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walking the Americas: 1,800 Miles, Eight Countries, and One Incredible Journey from Mexico to Colombia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Joseph Meek: The Life and Legacy of the Oregon Territory’s Most Influential Politician during the 19th Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great Railroad Revolution: The History of Trains in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIron Empires: Robber Barons, Railroads, and the Making of Modern America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Train: Riding the Rails That Created the Modern World---from the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Northland: A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America's Forgotten Border Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRival Rails: The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of Geography: Ten Maps that Reveal the Future of Our World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cinco de Mayo: The History of the Battle of Puebla and the Famous Holiday Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5California: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The California Trail: The History and Legacy of the 19th Century Routes that Led Americans to the Golden State Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America's Revolutionary Era Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life and Death in the Andes: On the Trail of Bandits, Heroes, and Revolutionaries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Silver, Sword, and Stone: Three Crucibles in the Latin American Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brazil: A Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies) History For You
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life: My Story Through History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tainos and Caribs: The History of the Indigenous Natives Who Encountered Christopher Columbus in 1492 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Killing of Uncle Sam: The Demise of the United States of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Waco Siege: An American Tragedy: An American Tragedy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5History of the Conquest of Mexico Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Religious Literacy Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Story of My Life (Version 2) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark History of American Presidents: Digitally Narrated Using a Synthesized Voice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulf: The Making of An American Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of John Adams by David McCullough Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lost Empire of Atlantis: History's Greatest Mystery Revealed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wicked New Orleans: The Dark Side of the Big Easy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Slavery: History in an Hour Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Modern American History: A Captivating Guide to the Modern History of the United States of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5America: The Last Best Hope (Volume I): From the Age of Discovery to a World at War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dinner With the President Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Puerto Rico: A National History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Haitian Revolution: The History and Legacy of the Slave Uprising that Led to Haiti’s Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mountain Man: John Colter, the Lewis & Clark Expedition, and the Call of the American West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Constitution of the United States of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Longest Line on the Map
4 ratings0 reviews