the national road dispatches from a changing america

Still, after hearing one review and reading another, I found the book on Amazon, where the cover image heightened my anticipation. Problem is, Joliet wasn’t the western terminus of Thomas Jefferson’s National Road, which actually went to Vandalia, which was the Illinois state capital at the time and is more than 200 miles south of Joliet.

The reviewer noted that while Zoellner is an editor and author, he’s also “an old-fashioned American vagabond,” so I was expecting something of a contemporary tome along the lines of William Least Heat Moon’s wonderful Blue Highways, Dayton Duncan’s Out West, or perhaps even John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley.Īnd what really hooked me was the reviewer’s note that the book takes its title from The National Road, the nation’s first federal roadway that went from Cumberland, Maryland to, the reviewer said, Joliet, Illinois, which just happens to be my hometown. The NYT reviewer noted some great American travelogues, but also that in the 21st century, and especially in this year of Covid-19, Americans seem to have lost their urge to roam.

The national road dispatches from a changing america