Roads and Highways Books

This book is a whirlwind of all things in our life that gets affected by Internet. I have read both "Being Digital" and "Silicon Snake Oil" and I agreed with both those views. I read this title and it blew me away.I am not sure why this book is out of print and why they are selling it for $0.01

The key reason is this: This book was published in 1995 and I can cite companies that were formed in 1999 book by taking a line from the book. Entire magazine articles are written simply elaborating the content of a single paragraph in this book. Its not the labels or company names that are cited here which are important but the fact that the key ideas mentioned are ensconced in todays' labryinthine evolution of the Net.

Another way of being impressed with this book can be the sheer prophetic nature of it. We can never evaluate anything against the future because of lack of materialization. Whereas, we can take this kind of a book and lay down its theses and look at reality to see how it panned. Try it for yourself and recollect how many other works of literature had a similar impact.For example Page 139 Bullet #3 contains the idea of youtube.com

If you are anywhere connected to the Internet Industry then you gotta read this book. If you are in any other industry and wanted to chalk out the perimeter of the net then this is a mighty good investment of your time.

I had to chuckle when I saw that this book is available at .01 in the used books on Amazon.com -- it is such a terrific book--- worth it's weight (which is about 1 lb) in gold and more :)). Fabulous insight into what it's like to deal with Silicon Valley and the future-- all relevant today-- Covers the Internet, Games, Smart TV or "PC In Drag" and much more as we venture in into the Brave New World of today. Written in 1995 it is a prescient approach to today and tomorrow's business world involving technology, changing culture and telephony and more. Kline was a contributing writer at WIRED and Burstein is/was Senior Advisor to the famous Blackstone Group...still ahead of the cure. It says its the book about the Information Highway-- it's really about doing business in the information age --called NOW.

Road Warriors: Dreams and Nightmares Along the Information Highway by Daniel Burstein and David Kline, Plume/Penguin Book, $13.95. 1996 ISBN 0-452-27105-3 by Marcus Goncalves - goncalves@process.com "Road Warriors: Dreams and Nightmares Along the Information Highway" by Daniel Burstein and David Kline is one of those books so embracing in its effort to describe a vivid, human-natured narrative of the road warrior personalities and strategies driving the digital technology revolution of our times that it almost challenges you to "pray" before you continue reading it. The book, has a bitter-sweet taste, funny but also sad, exciting but depressing, it gives us a leap of faith in the twenty-first century society but also portraits the leviathan of cultural clashes. It's almost magic, in the sense that it drags you onto an envision of the dominating forces shaping our future, the battle between net profit and net human identity, the gripping reality of where the information technology is taking us by condition... not opinion. Burstein and Kline's book elaborates on nothing new, but provides an entire new insight of facts, as the arguments presented are results of social-technocrats tragedies and casualties, elicited by incisive and informative headlines on Wired magazine, Hotwired and other Web-zines, not mentioning major news media. It debates on the "usability" of computer technology, which included video games and the human imagination as well as the PC versus the TV trend. It wonders over the dreams and nightmares of every road warrior, active or passive. It even discusses about Bill Gates and Microsoft's strategy, and the works of the government's proper role in light of the free market forces. Road Warriors is talking about a current reality, where most of the battles are still taking place, some not even started yet. The formed and severed alliances it describes are still in the process. The warriors of the information highway and the rest of us are optimistically heralding a new world order in the wake of the Information Age. For some, it may be another opportunity to grab the American dream, but it could also very well be a paradigm predicting a new, dangerous global conflict were disconcerting inefficient government policy, professional careers and family values will crash and burn, in Web time, through the effect of wires and chips. The rivalry of the Information Age warriors is replaced by the clash of civilizations. Just like Phoenix, the re-emerging information technologies on the Internet, the Web, Cybercash and I-phones, to name few, are reshaping new trends, new opportunities, new business, and consequently, a new cast of citizens, a new civilization: a Cyber one, that is. This does not mean that these events are always convincing. Here and there, as Burstein and Kline examine recent events, in light of the coming of the so called Digital Age, one suspects that they are interpreting the facts to suit the theory. Their book has plenty detailed examples of the advent of the Digital Age, including the social dimensions often excluded by technocrats. That's why so many love magazines like Wired, and so many hate it. For instance, will computers replace televisions in the living room, where the family will be gathered, as discussed in chapter eight, Smart TV, or a PC in Drag? The burgeoning increase of personal computers, usage of online networks and multimedia applications suggests that. Indeed Americans are spending more and more time in front of a computer. That much is true, but the theory has trouble with other features of the "infowar," like the deep transformation it will indicate in American social life, which realistically, as Burstein and Kline indicates, it will not happen in the foreseeable future. The idea hardly seems to matter to technocrats and road warriors, whatever their own faults (is it technology's fault?), which really were victims "of profound changes in the structure and internal life of Americans," as brilliantly discussed on the book, not merely a great ideal of Yankee ingenuity, entrepreneurial capitalism, and economic progress, as described by Burstein and Kline. For instance, the Silicon Graphics' former chairman, Jim Clark, statement that "computers and consumer electronics are going to be shared technologies," would have been very different if he had not found a new "Zion for his mass-market dream: the Internet." What exactly Jim Clark might have done differently so he wouldn't be so wrong on his assessment? Thus the Internet may be housing some 30 million users, the cable TV viewers amount to about 150 million in 63 million homes. Still, Burstein and Kline's grand concept of a PC in drag versus smart TV explains a good deal about the battle of giants like Tele-Communications, Inc., Microsoft, NTT (the giant Japanese telecommunication company) and their impact in the world these days, which would be difficult to explain without it. Stripped to its essence, paraphrasing Professor Donna L. Hoffman's words, of Vanderbilt University, the book's argument is this: The Information Age will tremendously affect society, in particular the American society. The book is dazzling in its scope of placing this global revolution in the historic context and grasp of the intricacies of contemporary global politics and consequent transformations following the Industrial Revolution. Readers not already familiar with issues driving the unprecedented promises of the Information Age might feel a bit overwhelmed with the conclusions the authors come to: America's society is growing more and more dysfunctional, in a process that is alienating families and individuals by canning the American people dreams onto digital fetishes serving the interests of few. As the authors write on Chapter 11, The Global Challenge, "the prosaic reality is that policy makers in every country, including United States, are continuing to make national decisions about the flow of global information based on their own interests." Past the after shock of a crude reality taking place at the myriad of the present Information Age, riding on the so called Information Super Highway, Road Warriors is a "must read" for everyone involved in this process, business and academic communities alike. It is also a call for society's conscience and active participation on this digital revolution. It is an alert of the danger and somewhat unavoidable fragmentation and decentralization of society in face of the clashes resulted of the "future shock" so well diagnosed by Alvin and Heidi Toffler back in the 70's. If we don't take Bustein & Kline very seriously, the clash of our civilization may start at our home.

Ok the book is now 'old' in that it was published in 1995, but you are not going to find anything better on the business of the 'information highway' (I know that term irritates people, but the point is that this book is about more than the just Internet, it is about the world the net is embedded within).

The book is about the business war over communication and transmission, that will effect everybody who uses the Internet or other 'new media', the massive mergers and collaborations which effect us all. It discusses High Definition TV, the video on demand problem, the fight over the phone business, stock market frenzy over 'information stock', the problems when so much money can be made by so few people, what happens to the 'middle class' etc. It is a call for us to think about the future based upon a fairly detailed consideration of what is happening now

some quotes:

"design and use of new technology necessarily entails contests over political power"

"companies.. are continuing to invest feverishly against the evidence of most market research and historical experience"

"one of the Digital Revolution's central laws is that the more uncertain one is about exactly how to profit from digital technology, the more lyrical one becomes in describing it"

"As the rate of new wealth creation fueled by digital technology rises, the number of people required to produce it is decreasing"

There are few books on the so called 'information revolution', which anyone interested in the subject will get something out of. This is a book for business, investors, academic analysts, politicians, and nearly everyone else.

Scarbrough has written an impeccably researched, compelling book. I lived in Georgetown 1997-2007 and watched it change from a sweet little town, past the outskirts of Austin's development, into something almost indistinguishable from any other suburban city in America. It has happened in Mustang, OK...in Owasso, OK...in Universal City, TX...in Georgetown, TX...in Vancouver, WA, in Sherwood, OR. If one ignores the landscape, the towns are virtually indistinguishable from one another. The rich heritage of the Czechs, the Germans (e.g., German Corner in Owasso) has been drowned in a flood of one-size-fits-all development. Now, not to sound completely gloomy, I do think it is possible for a city in the path of development to resist the Goliath. I think it is possible for a city to choose its own path of development, one that builds on its unique characteristics. Leavenworth, WA, is one such town. And I think more cities should choose to preserve their communities, rather than selling out their birthrights for thirty pieces of silver, rather than sitting back apathetically while their homes are swept away in a tidal wave of materialism. It takes just one leader, with a vision, and a willingness to work really, REALLY hard. Those are pretty hard to find. Anyway, the book is definitely worth the read. I found myself in a state of suspense several times, which was surprising considering that I had gone fishing in Granger Lake myself, and my children were cared for as infants by some of those same elderly Czech folk. A very good read, even for a girl who usually prefers fiction. I have given copies to friends in my new town, including the city council president, who promised to pass it along to the mayor, and to the owner of the local bookshop, where the Democratic Party meets. The town is now facing a vote that will help determine the path of its future development, and I am very interested to see how it all turns out. I hope Linda's outstanding book will help to turn the tide.

Road, River, And Ol' Boy Politics: A Texas Country's Path From Farm To Supersuburb by Linda Scarbrough is an impressively researched, superbly written and quite original perspective of the complete history of the state Texas. Scarbrough's depiction of Texas' history is outstanding for its individuality and historical documentation in that its approach is of a philosophical outlook more oriented to the political reasoning for Texas' development. A highly notable and strongly recommended read, Road, River, And Ol' Boy Politics is an excellent read for historians of American history in general and students of Texas history in particular.

Some lines from the introduction to "Road, River, and Ol' Boy Politics" concisely relate author Scarbrough's thesis: " The story of Williamson County's metamorphosis from agrarian backwater to suburban juggernaut reveals a pattern of how several of America's most successful agricultural counties became supersuburbs over the last half of the twentieth century. The twin pillars of this growth surge, most notably in the Dry Sun Belt, were dams and interstate highways funded by the federal government.....Who decided where to put these massive projects and why?..."

While this is the story of the transformation of one American county, Williamson, County, Texas, it is indicative of what has occurred across our nation. Yes, times they are achangin', and to read about how some of it happened is fascinating.

The author identifies three essential ingredients which are necessary for dynamic growth: a new water source, a new major highway, and "a politically skillful and determined leader." In Texas, these men are simply called good ol' boys. If you wish to dispute Scarbrough's premise just take a look at the booming areas outside of Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, and Salt Lake City.

Scarbrough is publisher of the Williamson County Sun in Georgetown, Texas. With advanced degrees in American Civilization from the University of Texas, she knows her subject well. She was among the first to write about environmental issues for the New York Daily News, and when she returned to Texas in 1978 she continued to discuss that subject on the pages of her family newspaper.

"Road, River, and Ol' Boy Politics" is replete with illustrations, maps, bibliography, and index. It's an important addition to the archives of Texas history, and that of our country as well.

- Gail Cooke

I am seriously addicted to these Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology books. They lead you by milepost on such wonderful tours. You'll want to grab your camera, rock hammer and pocket protector, and hit the road with this one.

There are a lot of excellent maps in this spiral-bound book. The Great Basin offers many surprises to those who leave the Interstate. Enjoy.

I have a confession to make. When I live in a place that has ice and snow on the ground for twenty-something days; the temperature hovers around the cold mark (anything below 50 degrees Fahrenheit;)and my home heating bills are larger than my mortage payment, I frequently contract cabin fever. Symptoms include, but are not limited to, looking at maps, howling at the moon (when available), chasing parked cars, and reading travel books. I know, I know, it's only the beginning of winter and readers are typically not standing in line to get tickets for their summer vacations. However, to my surprise I find that a number of libraries have very popular travel programs that start in January. Could it be that others are afflicted with this seemingly incurable malaise? Thus, you can imagine my delight in finding a copy of this wonderful travel book. My wife and I traveled U.S. Highway 50, christened "The Loneliest Road in America" by Time magazine, across Nevada a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, while we had a number of obligatory travel books of this region, this one was not available. I can't believe how much we missed! Since it was published by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, it is a specialized travel book. But don't let that fool you. While it is chock full of information on the geology, flora, and fauna of the region it is so much more. In addition to being highly readable it has 70 color photos, 170 black & white photos and an abundance of illustrations, maps, and sketches. The book takes the traveler along this historic Lincoln Highway from Carson City to Baker and introduces you to a unique Nevada adventure complete with national forests, deserts, and a National Park, Great Basin, that many travelers don't even know exists. About the only thing you will miss is the diesel fume spewing monsters pulling full grown homes and bumper-to-bumper traffic at every milepost. During our visit to Great Basin National Park we encountered perhaps a dozen cars. The book has a helpful road log keyed to highway markers. The trip will take you from ghost towns to Pony Express stations and so many side trips into areas of pristine beauty that you will be hard pressed to believe you are in Nevada, which is, after all just a lot of desert, right? You might even visit a lake that produces some of the best trout fishing in the State and stop for a picnic lunch under aspens that will take your breath away. How about stopping in Fallon and visiting the Naval Air Station and Strike and Air Warfare Center, the Navy's Top Gun training center. Riding the "Ghost Train" from Ely is a trip you won't forget. We discovered the works of Nevada poet Kirk Robertson in a small bookshop in Eureka, which has a beaufifully restored historic courthouse. Kind of a special two for one deal. If you are looking for the fastest way to traverse Nevada complete with four lanes of pavement, interchanges, and fast food stops, Highway 50 is not for you. On the other hand, if you have just a touch of adventure in your soul and don't mind beautiful scenery, historic ambiance, and lots of space, this is worth your time. I would not make this the only travel guide to take on such a trip but I would not leave home without it. Take heart fellow sufferers, spring and summer is coming and this book will remind you why the wait is worth it.

"Close enough for government work" is a slam with a core message that is demolished by Tingley and Pizarro's book. The inside cover makes it clear that this book, published by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, is keyed to the designation by the Nevada Legislature of US 50 as the official "Loneliest Road." Thus forwarned to what by conventional wisdom ought to be a badly-organized piece of legislation-inspired junk, I was blown out of the water (OK, sand) by the photos (plenty of color but also outstanding B&W), organization, and clear and enthusiastic writing. The emphasis is on geology over social history, but the interaction between the two is always made clear. And it's not just history--wise comments re the possible sound of Sand Mountain versus the reality of OHV roaring alert readers to what is worth stopping for. Anyone traveling through Nevada on US 50 as opposed to I-80 or I-15 must be a tourist. This book gets granular for you.

Polly Brown and Jane Bernard are the Thelma and Louise of Documentary photography, shooting their way down the Mother Road with eyes and hearts wide open. Steinbeck, Kerouac, Mick Jagger, and Elvis would all love this book, and so do I.

Jane Bernard and Polly Brown are accomplished, widely-published Santa Fe photographers who spent three years on American's most legendary trail. American Route 66: Home on the Road (172 p., Museum of New Mexico Press, 2003, $45) "winds from Chicago to L.A." These superb color and black-and-white photographs merge with their subjects mini-oral histories and the photographers' journal entries.

We discover that an elongated Lake Woebegone populated by people such as Charles and Gazelle Stewart, who have surrounded their petrified wood store with towering folk-artsy dinosaurs designed to make kids demand to stop the car. Gazelle recalls how Jerry Seinfeld came in one day with his bodyguard, "a little bitty man...with such a huge gun he could hardly keep his pants up." Seinfeld wanted a $3,000 meteorite, but the power was down, so they couldn't run his credit card. They trusted him anyway.

"We'd make more money," Charles says, "if I'd stop making so many dinosaurs."

If you love american history by a great writer, PICK THiS BOOK UP! It is amazing, and he is a true american writer! Great pictures, great stories, you will never put the book down. Dont mind that I am his nephew, im really not that biased!

I've read Peter Genovese's other two books and have to say this is by far the best. Great stories, great photos, excellent writing. I grew up in a town right on Route 1 in New Jersey, and have traveled some of the sections in a few other states. This book makes you see the road in a whole new light. My husband and I have driven Route 66 all the way and we were looking for another "road trip" to take. I think this book will be the "travel guide" for that trip. I loved it! I can't wait for his next book!

A wonderful "read!" Very well researched; suitable for both the old road enthusiast and the casual reader. Many photos and illustrations.

Includes the history as well as the details of early auto road development, and tells the tale of the Yellowstone Trail with excellent maps and period documents.

Made me eager to "hit the road!"

On The Road To Yellowstone: The Yellowstone Trail And American Highways 1900-1930 is a unique and highly recommended contribution to American popular history which is enhanced with 276 photos, maps and documents. The focus is on the original and sometimes adventurous development of automobile access to the Yellowstone. The profusely illustrated, "reader friendly", and informative text is a fascinating exercise in specialized regional history and includes relevant federal highway legislation, as well as the creation of west coast and east coast extensions. An introduction, epilogue, and two appendices (Maps of the Yellowstone Trail, 1926 and Yellowstone Trail Road Conditions enhance this informative, meticulously presented and definitive work.

A fascinating book that keeps you interested as you move from marker to marker. A great educational work for anyone interested in American history!

A fascinating book that keeps you interested as you proceed from marker to marker. A good educational work for anyone interested in American history!

Robinson describes people who live or work on Route 66 and people who are 66 enthusiasts in one way or another. His book answers a question being asked in this 75th anniversary year of the Mother Road: What's so special about Route 66?

The author allows people to answer for themselves and from their own experience as truck drivers, state troopers, gas station attendants, artists, photographers, motel and restaurant owners, writers, gift shop operators, and even collectors of memorabilia. There is an excellent chapter on Route 66 museums, attesting to the appreciation of local communities of their 66 heritage. The photography is excellent.

The book takes a very different approach in presenting Route 66; it is about the old highway but through the perspective of people who can still be found along the way and who express well what Route 66 was and still is. The author writes well, but it is clear that through the many interviews conducted for his book he also listens well. A great variety of Route 66 lives are presented, and Robinson's "people book" is a valuable addition to the growing body of literature on the Mother Road.

In this book, the author manages to bring a fresh light to a subject many lovers of Americana and automobilia feel they already know by heart.

Besides being a naturally talented writer (this is his first book) and photographer, Robinson shows he has a great gift for getting to the core of his subject matter and sharing it with the rest of us. Rather than filling his pages with dry recounts of Route 66's various alignments and long lessons on '30s-era cartography, he gives us stories that in many cases leave you wanting more, such as the itinerant farmer who had to take a job at a diner in New Mexico -- and wound up owning the business for the rest of his life.

Every tale in the book comes from extensive interviews Robinson conducted while traveling the remaining sections of the highway.

The book's primary theme woven through the various first-hand recounts is the collectibility of Route 66 -- and not just the ubiquitous highway sign that's come to symbolize the Mother Road for so many people around the world. The highlighted collections run the gamut from pieces of the "hard road" itself to one man's lifelong obsession with Route 66-related postcards; from bundles of barbed wire to a yard full of neon signage.

Because I love traveling through the Midwest and West, anything written about Route 66 gets my attention. "Route 66: Lives on the Road," however, should even appeal to readers whose interests aren't so specifically focused on that famous highway.

This book rebuts both environmentalists and road lobbyists, by explaining why neither expanded transit nor expanded roads will have significant impacts upon congestion: expanded transit is of minimal value because it affects so few people (except perhaps in downtowns), expanded roads don't work because of what Downs calls "triple convergence" -- when a road is built it fills up because (1) drivers who used alternative routes switch to the new or widened road, (2) drivers who avoided rush hour start traveling during rush hour, and (3) drivers who used public transit switch to the improved expressway. (And triple convergence doesn't even take into account the long-run congestion that results when people move to be near a widened or new expressway, thus causing additional ridership increases). The only solution is to reduce demand for transportation, by encouraging ride sharing through tolls, fuel tax increases and other unpopular steps. In short, the most effective ways of reducing congestion are also the least politically popular.

I have used Anthony Downs, "Stuck in Traffic" for three years for a short course in urban transportation planning. Students find it clear and yet realistic on how simplistic solutions like "building more highway lanes" have unintended consequences that cancel out the gains.

He also looks at urban planning solutions, and shows that some gains might occur from increasing housing densities from very low to low or moderate, but most other solutions have little effect.

Finally, the most powerful solutions, including higher gasoline taxes, increased public funding for transit, and tolling on highways are also the least palatable politically.

Downs, an economist, is strong on the economic aspects of transportation, and has a good grasp on the planning issues. The book does not cover any of the engineering details of possible schemes.

Overall, an clearly written and strongly argued book.

Jim Mars School of Urban and Regional Planning Ryerson Polytechnic University Toronto, Ontario, CANADA

Great book, kind of in the same category as "Race Car Vehicle Dynamics," but without such a racing orientation. Great explanation on the dynamics of tires. Slip angles, where tire judder comes from, and the like. Can get pretty mathematical in it's explanations, but since that was what I was looking for (mathematics explains everything) that part was fine. It has a great explanation of roll centers, withe the accompaning diagrams of jacking and the forces and their directions. Really helped me understand that complex subject.

A MUST HAVE FOR ANY AUTOMOBILE OR RACECAR ENGINEER!!

This book is all that it promises - if you are unsatisfied with the explanations given for handling behavior in "consumer-level" handling books you won't be disappointed. On the other hand, if you aren't an engineer you might want to review your college math textbooks to get through some of the explanations.