The ‘Mother Road’ has long symbolized freedom and reinvention. But its history reveals a more complicated story shaped by migration, segregation and the highways that eventually circumvented it.
Articles on Interstate highway system
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Conflict between Washington and the states is perennial and by design. Lack of clarity about who’s in charge on what issue keeps power from becoming concentrated.
The US economy has always been a mix of government regulation and market forces. The balance between those has shifted over time, but never has one side or the other been substantively removed.
Transportation agencies plan for events like major bridge or highway collapses, but these events can disrupt traffic for months and affect residential neighborhoods as well as motorists.
The lasting problems of infrastructure aren’t of need or construction, but of overbuilding, delayed costs and the challenges of thinking ahead.
Government investment in roads, railroads and other public services has always involved social programming, both for good and for ill.
Top contributors
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Professor of History, Rice University
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Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee
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Associate Professor of History, The University of Texas at Austin
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Professor of American History, Stanford University
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Professor of Law, University of Cincinnati
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Professor of Law, Wake Forest University
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Associate Professor of Political Science & Criminal Justice, Kennesaw State University
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Adjunct Professor of History, Arizona State University