Road Trip: Roadside America, From Custard's Last Stand to the Wigwam Restaurant
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.47 (742 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0789327619 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 208 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-08-02 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Unseen photographs of the late ’60s and early ’70s from the American road offer a compelling portrait of a fanciful landscape, now all but gone. Expectation, anticipation, discovery—each of these is a facet of an American institution, the road trip. Built in an age of unbridled imagination, these structures speak to the fancies of their original owners and builders as much as to the purposes for which they were built: a gas station whose pumps are covered by a canopy in the form of a fully realized B-29 bomber; a hot dog stand named Frank ‘n’ Stein, whose diners are met by a colossal Frankenstein bearing in one hand a mustard-covered dog and in the other a mug of foaming beer. With more than 200 previously unpublished full-color photographs of the iconic imagery of the American highway and richly descriptive text, Road Trip will delight and engage both the armchair traveler, the enthusiast of Americana, the architectural enthusiast, and all those longing for the romance of the road.. With a focus on vernacular roadside architecture built between 1920 and the late 1960s, the golden age of the American road, Road Trip is a time capsule, a snapshot taken primarily in the early 1970s, of an
A professor at George Washington University, where he directs the program in historic preservation, he is the author of numerous books and articles. Richard Longstreth is a passionate observer of the American road who has driven cross-country on numerous occasions—and always with a camera.
for a book that looks like a fun read for the casual historian This book has it's enjoyable moments, but is problematic in several areas. First, the font size in the text is extremely small, almost footnote sized. Second, for a book that looks like a fun read for the casual historian, the writing is dense and academic, with references to people only fellow individuals (fellow researchers, I assume) in that specific discipline would know, and rather choppy writing more typical of a journal article than a popular book (in fact, the best writing is . Commonplace flashback The American highway has provided a treasure trove of images for photographers over the decades, it could be amateurishly made structures promoting a local enterprise or a franchise that has spread across the country. Richard Longstreth focuses on restaurants, gas stations, motels, stores and drive-ins rather than non-commercial vernacular buildings that could be found away from the Interstates. His photos, taken from the late sixties and the seventies, are an interesting record becau. R. Notkin said It could have been better if ALL of the photo pages had been number. It could have been better if ALL of the photo pages had been number (as the text refers to the photos by page number). I had to keep counting from a numbered page. Also, inserting the photos closer to the corresponding text would have made the book much more readable.Moving past that, I enjoyed the pictures and the commentary on neat and unusual buildings. A better layout would have gotten It could have been better if ALL of the photo pages had been number R. Notkin It could have been better if ALL of the photo pages had been number (as the text refers to the photos by page number). I had to keep counting from a numbered page. Also, inserting the photos closer to the corresponding text would have made the book much more readable.Moving past that, I enjoyed the pictures and the commentary on neat and unusual buildings. A better layout would have gotten 4 stars. Keeping the author's journey in mind, if the book had more pictures from during the sto. stars. Keeping the author's journey in mind, if the book had more pictures from during the sto
"Armed with a Nikon F, the architectural historian Richard Longstreth shot them all, coast-to-coast, on Kodachrome film for slides, through the 1970s and into the mid-1980s. The 200 images in his book are rich in color - and in nostalgia and wonder that will beckon readers of all ages." -Architects and Artisans"From hamburger joints to drive-ins, this is an entertaining and, in its own way, sad trip down memory's blacktop lane." -The Chicago Tribune