Legendary Route 66: A Journey Through Time Along America's Mother Road

by Gyvel Young-Witzel, Gyvel Young-Witzel, Jim Ross (Foreword)

It started in the heartland and originally ended in Los Angeles (not, contrary to myth, at the ocean). It carried truckers crossing the country, Okies fleeing the Dust Bowl, vacationers seeking the sun. It was Americas Main Street, the Mother Road, the Will Rogers Highway, and, at its dangerous curves, Bloody 66. Get your kicks on Route 66 with this wonderfully illustrated tribute to the best-loved highway in this car-loving nation. Michael Witzel shares his expertise and wealth of personal, archive, collector, and contributing photographer images in these pages, offering a nostalgic tour of the charms and oddities of this road through American cultural history.

Starting in Chicago and running to Santa Monica, this book highlights the sights along the highway with historic and current photos in then-and-now pairings, and includes Route 66 postcards, road signs, trinkets, maps, brochures, and advertisements.

Here we see Route 66 as it was in its heyday and as it is now, the neon glamour of yesterday versus the ghost towns of today. Witzel and his wife, Gyvel Young-Witzel, recount the highways history, its role in popular culture, and its demise, as well as the individual stories of famous sights. Several profiles of those with close ties to the Mother Road, including the woman who played Ruthie Joad in the The Grapes of Wrath film, are included.

Genres: Travel, American History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2007

Reviews

[SouthWestZippy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun book, filled with tons of pictures. Lots of history, interesting facts and shows the building of, the destruction of and the rebuilding of the areas the road runs through.

[Vannessa Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciate a book with a table of contents with titles that brought up memories!

Chapter One Tourist Traps
Chapter Two Filling Stations
Chapter Three Roadside Food
Chapter Four Motor Hotels
Chapter Five Mother Road Memories
Epilogue: Route 66: Memories of a Forgotten Highway

Route 66 stimulated my imagination to where I could envision driving Route 66 and enjoying everything along the route: the attractions sites, the food, the people and last but not least its History.

Route 66 is well written, well researched and well illustrated. The pictures were so lifelike they jumped off the pages!

We are reminded how politicians have been destroying American taxpayers dreams for decades.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is far more than another monument to Route 66. It is an honest, well researched, heavily illustrated history of America as seen through the development, abandonment, and rebirth of this legendary highway.