The Lincoln Highway: Main Street Across America

by Drake Hokanson

Book Overview

Ten years after its original publication, Drake Hokanson's best-selling book continues to inspire readers to leave the interstate for a road less traveled, but one that still fuels the American... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877451974
• ISBN13: 9780877451976
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: University of Iowa Press
• Length: 159 Pages
• Weight: 2.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Lincoln highway read

I bought this as a Christmas present for my husband. He thoroughly enjoys the book, there are a lot of great photos and he said this is a great read.

The Romanticism of Travel

I'm a history junkie and I admit it. And this book feeds my habit superbly. Drake Hokanson has done an excellent job of documenting the birth of the concept of a national road across the United States. It was the dawn of the motor age and the car makers realized that the future of their business depended on more than just regional travel. The visionaries of the Lincoln Highway saw their concept as unifying the continent, much as the transcontinental railroad had done 50 years before. The job of selling an idea, the politics of route locations, the romanticism and danger involved in striking out across no man's land to "see the country" and the techniques of keeping people motivated are all part of a well-woven story. His narrative mastery in describing what it felt like when he camped out where others had camped in the past had me feeling like I was right there with him. I love it when writing pulls me into the flow. In addition, Hokanson includes some beautiful archival photos from the University of Michigan as well as some he himself shot during research trips for the book. I wound up a little sad when I got to the last chapter because it was soon to be over. I think that's the mark of a good writer.

Definitive overview of America's first great automobile road

Long before Route 66, there was the Lincoln Highway -- a transcontinental road connecting Times Square to San Francisco, marked and promoted by private interests. The Lincoln Highway and its brethren (the Dixie Highway, Victory Highway, National Old Trails Road, and dozens more) were replaced by the U.S. Route system almost 75 years ago, but many stretches of the old Lincoln are still part of major auto routes. The most scenic and historic stretches include US 30 through Pennsylvania and western Nebraska and US 50 across central Nevada (the "Loneliest Road"). Drake Hokanson brings the Lincoln Highway era back to life with a combination of modern observations, quotes from pioneer motorists, and well-chosen illustrations. Anyone who's ever driven, or thought about driving, Route 66 should look also at the Lincoln: it's longer, more historic, more scenic, and less tied to the world of the Interstates. Drake Hokanson's book is the perfect introduction to the world of the Lincoln Highway.

One of the best researched highway documentaries I have read

The outstanding aspect of this book is that it gives a detailed history of the conception, implementation, and fight to save the Lincoln Highway. Upon completion, one has a thorough knowledge of the people and politics of the highway. But there is more. It gives a summary of the different sections of the Lincoln as it exists in the late 1980s. While not a complete travel guide, it makes for an excellent companion for anyone thinking of retracing the old highway. After reading this book, I wanted to resign my job and drive this road. The author has taken no short cuts here.

A fascinating history of the first transcontinental highway.

American children grow up learning about the first transcontinental railroad and the Pony Express, and rightly so given their role in binding the adolescent United States together. Few, however, learn about the nation's first transcontinental highway, the Lincoln, or Pacific, Highway. This was the road that launched automotive travel as adventure, in a nation that would link its lifestyle to the automobile. The irony is that while we all learn about the Pony Express and Transcontinental Railroad, neither is much more than legend to us today. But automotive travel, especially as adventure, is very much part of the American way of life. Yet few of us know much about the highway that made early 20th century Americans see the adventure in motor vehicle travel. This book, with its outstanding collection of historical and contemporary photos and well-researched and readable text, recounts the great, though forgotten, place the Lincoln Highway had in America at the time. From Times Square to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, the Lincoln Highway carried the most adventuresome motorists across some of the most settled, and most wild, landscapes in the country. In places, like central Utah's Great Basin, it wasn't much more than a two-track trail. Even today, one can drive a long, remote and spectacular unpaved segment of it across Utah, the same route followed by the Pony Express and Overland Stage. When I drove the route, which includes the ruins of Pony Express and stagecoach stations, this book helped me relive one of the most exciting and memorable, yet least remembered, chapters in American motoring history. No, I didn't write it. I just loved it. If you're a fool for driving and for personally reliving Western history, this is the guide to take you there