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Route 66: The Empires of Amusement
by Thomas Arthur Repp (Photographer)

Considering the avalanche of Route 66-related books on the market it is inevitable that there is some overlap in what the various books cover. Some are little more than blatant copycat rehashing of long-established, oft-repeated fluff and their main purpose in life seems to be to cash in on a certain wave of uncritical nostalgia.

It is reassuring to note that Repp’s book was received positively by the inner circle of established Route 66 writers such as Michael Wallis (Route 66: The Mother Road) or Jim Ross (Oklahoma’s Mother Road). Sort of like going to an ethnic restaurant and seeing “natives” there. Presumably they know what’s what and their presence legitimizes the joint.

Repp does cover a new facet, especially in terms of the photographic record, but it is rather on the fringes. His focus is on the carnival folk that set up shop along certain parts of Route 66. What the book doesn’t say, what none of the reviewers say, but what ought to be clarified nevertheless is that the circumstance that entertainers sought out Route 66 has more to do with necessity being the mother of invention than any intrinsic quality of Route 66.

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Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age
by John A Jakle, Keith A Sculle

“For others the roadside is just too damn obvious to require rigorous contemplation.”

This quote, from the last page of the book (first published in 1999), probably should have been on the first. The whole concept of “the roadside” as an entity in and of itself, let alone as a topic deserving of serious thought, still seems to be outside of the field of view of the general motoring public. This despite a body of literature that dates back to the 1960s. Books like this and events like the 1988 Society for Commercial Archeology conference “Americans and the Automobile” seek to give visibility to the complex and often hidden influences of the automobile on culture and everyday life.

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Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure:
The True Story of a Great American Road Trip
by Matthew Algeo

Road trips, and the books wherein the tales of each are told, continually attract and delight readers. First-person stories from writers like William Least-Heat Moon with his Blue Highways and John Steinbeck telling of his Travels with Charley have entertained, informed, and motivated others to go exploring.

Some, however, needed no third-party inspiration. All Harry and Bess Truman required was time. Time free from other commitments—like the presidency. However, as they discovered, once having occupied the White House as the first couple, it can be a tad difficult to go anywhere without being noticed.

Truman was a Chrysler man making his newly acquired 1953 New Yorker—a black, four-door sedan riding on chrome wire wheels dressed with whitewall tires, fitted with a 331 cubic inch FirePower V-8 that answered to its Powerflite transmission—the “star car” of this particular narrative. But others feature prominently too including Harry’s first-ever automobile, a 1911 Stafford in which he had courted Bess. (Anyone remember those machines?)

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Peking to Paris, 100th Anniversary Edition
by Luigi Barzini

I had long wanted to read this book. But, since it was published in 1908—well, finding a copy either meant, if it was in nice condition, it cost more than I wanted to spend, and if affordable, wasn’t in very good condition. But now, thanks to a 100th Anniversary reprinting of Peking to Paris by Luigi Barzini by Demontreville Press, I’ve not just read this book—but enjoyed thoroughly every page.

Luigi Barzini was a newspaper reporter by profession and war correspondent, but more than that—as this book attests—he’s a terrific storyteller with a terrific story to tell. Barzini was along on every one of the over 8,000 miles, crossing two virtually roadless continents in 1907 from Peking, China to Paris, France in a 1907 Itala, along with the car’s owner Prince Scipione Borghese and mechanic Ettore Guizzardi.

You, the reader, get stuck repeatedly in mud, or at the foot of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and have to find your way out along with Borghese, Ettore and Barzini. You fall through a bridge, nearly to your death. You feel the frustrations at communicating with those who speak languages other than those the already multi-lingual Barzini and Borghese know. And you’re parched and burned by the sun right along with them crossing the Gobi desert and the Mongolian prairies.

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Che’s Chevrolet, Fidel’s Oldsmobile: On the Road in Cuba
by Richard Schweid

A popular urban myth states that the island of Cuba is filled with pristine examples of American cars from the 1950s and, that when Fidel Castro finally dies, a wave of these befinned wonders will roll up on our shores. For his 2004 book Che’s Chevrolet, Fidel’s Oldsmobile: On the Road in Cuba, journalist and author Richard Schweid traveled throughout the island nation researching its automotive history. His story provides an interesting mix of early 20th Century motoring, the Cuban revolution in the 1950s, and how people in modern-day Cuba get from place to place.

The first car in Cuba arrived in 1898. It was a lightweight vehicle built by Parisienne that was purchased in Paris by a rich Havana resident. The second car, which was also purchased in France by a Cuban pharmacist, was a Rochet & Schneider that arrived in Havana in 1899.

Havana was the country’s capital, but it wasn’t the only place with automobiles. The first car in Santiago de Cuba arrived in May 1902. It was a steam-powered Locomobile, built by Locomobile & Company in New York. Soon, gasoline, steam and electric powered cars could be seen in several of Cuba’s other cities and larger towns. They were of limited use however as although the streets within Cuba’s cities were drivable, the roads between towns in the countryside were all but impassable. In 1908, an American journalist named Ralph Estep drove a Packard automobile from Havana to the inland town Sancti Spíritus, taking nine days to cover the 313 miles.

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