The men who united the States
by Simon Winchester · first published 2013
3mentions
2recommended by
2HN commenters
2016–2017first – last mentioned
100% recommend
Acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Winchester illuminates the men who toiled fearlessly to discover, connect, and bond the citizenry and geography of the U.S.A. from its beginnings and ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree.
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Strongly recommended: The Men Who United the States, by Simon Winchester. Covers more than just roads, though that's included. What's impressive is to realise how recent most modern US travel infrastructure is. The Interstate Highway System wasn't begun…
on “1916 Guide Shows What the First Road Trips Were Like” ↗I'd recommend anything by Simon Winchester. He writes interesting non-fiction books and reads them for the audio versions. Just this morning on my drive into work I finished "The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible". Before that was "Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators,…
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite audio book?” ↗…of canals, railroads, postal roads, post offices, libraries, schools, public universities, the aviation industry, highway systems, and publicly-managed ports, all come to mind. Simon Winchester's The Men Who United the States addresses many of these elements, though not from a principally economic perspective. Keep in mind that the notion of trans-continental or inter-continental travel occurring within hours rather than…
on “As the U.S. fantasizes, the world builds high speed rail” ↗