A Chance to Breathe: Stories from a 1918 Road Trip

by James Gardner

August 1918, a group of friends gathers in Western Pennsylvania for a two-week camping road trip, but these were not ordinary friends—and this was no ordinary time.

A Chance to Breathe follows Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, John Burroughs, and Harvey Firestone, along with a caravan of vehicles and a slew of helpers, on their thousand-mile journey through the heart of America a little over a century ago. Their unlikely and fascinating friendships are matched only by their individual stories. Traversing the countryside by car, the famous campers would be some of the first participants in what would later become a traditional summer staple known as The Great American Road Trip.

Having largely invented the modern world, these “vagabonds” were hoping, at least for a moment, to escape it. And who could blame them? Life in 1918 was exhausting. World War One raged in Europe while humanity braced for yet another wave of the Spanish Flu, which in the end, would prove to be more like a tsunami. Racing through America’s first frontier, the story of Appalachia and West Virginia are brought to light, as are the stories of the people and places encountered along the way. In the end, A Chance to Breathe is a story of friendship, adventure, and the indomitable human spirit.

385 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 17, 2023

Reviews

[Jose Luis Vasquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book starts out with the author sharing with us his personal inspiration for taking this journey into the past, the impact from the loss of his father. From that point, you can hear the voice of someone who perhaps looked for a “chance to breath,” to remove himself for a little bit from the struggles of life, and as a result created a truly meaningful book. The author takes us away to the world of 1918, a haunting time in history made even more relevant by our recent pandemic. This book does an amazing job of recounting the travels from the perspectives of legendary figures with whom many of us are familiar but never whom we have seen as “vagabonds.” A Chance to Breath allows us to both explore the natural wonders of Appalachia with these giants of history but also to learn about them as people, their human stories and unique perspectives. The author provides a lot of history in these pages in a storytelling manner which really drew me in. There are so many facts the author writes about, which made for a compelling read. However, what makes this book enjoyable is its humanity, its devotion to exploration of the human spirit. You don’t have to be a fan of history to enjoy this book, merely a reader that wants to spend some time exploring what it was like to camp and sightsee during a monumental and stressful time in our country’s past. You will not be disappointed. I truly recommend this well researched and well written book.

[Peter Kageyama · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the vein of Bill Bryson's One Summer in America: 1927, Gardner uses a little know fact about four seminal figures in American history to tell their stories, and the larger stories of America. I had no idea that Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey S. Firestone and naturalist John Burroughs were a close-knit group of friends. This road trip story captures those men and the remarkable time they lived through, 1918. The First World War was ending, the Spanish Flu on the near horizon and the true birth of the American century was about to begin.

[Linda Frances · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best history books I have ever read. Not the dry facts we learned in school, but human interest stories. The story of the trip is interspersed with the lives and families of the main vagabonds, as well as explanations of how the southern Appalachians came to be the way it is. I thoroughly enjoyed it.