The Last American Road Trip: A Memoir

by Sarah Kendzior

The New York Times bestselling author of They Knew, Hiding in Plain Sight, and The View from Flyover Country navigates a changing America as she and her family embark on a series of road trips, in a book that is part memoir, part history, and wholly unique.

It is one thing to study the fall of democracy, another to have it hit your homeland -- and yet another to raise children as it happens. The Last American Road Trip is one family’s journey to the most beautiful, fascinating, and bizarre places in the US during one of its most tumultuous eras. As Kendzior works as a journalist chronicling political turmoil, she becomes determined that her young children see America before it’s too late. So Kendzior, her husband, and the kids hit the road -- again and again.

Starting from Missouri, the family drives across America in every direction as cataclysmic events – the rise of autocracy, political and technological chaos, and the pandemic – reshape American life. They explore Route 66, national parks, historical sites, and Americana icons as Kendzior contemplates love for country in a broken heartland. Together, the family watches the landscape of the United States - physical, environmental, social, political -transform through the car window.

Part memoir, part political history, The Last American Road Trip is one mother’s promise to her children that their country will be there for them in the future – even though at times she struggles to believe it herself.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel, History, Politics, Audiobook, Biography Memoir

320 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2025

About the author

Sarah Kendzior is the New York Times bestselling author of They Knew, Hiding in Plain Sight, The View from Flyover Country, and The Last American Road Trip.

She has a PhD in anthropology from Washington University in St Louis, where she researched politics and digital media in authoritarian states of the former Soviet Union. From 2012 to 2014, she wrote op-eds for Al Jazeera English, and from 2016 to 2020, she wrote op-eds for The Globe and Mail. She has a newsletter (https://sarahkendzior.substack.com/) and lives in St. Louis with her husband and children.

Reviews

[Jennifer Abdo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kendzior is one if the most earnest and heartfelt writers I've ever read. She writes about Missouri, being an American, her travels and her family and weaves in politics so skillfully I promise you might not realise - or at least won't mind.

I almost went through and listed all the destinations and tourist attractions, because I want to see all of them, but there are many and that isn't a review. I did especially enjoy descriptions of the tourist traps on Route 66, the accidental cult site encounter, the ghost story, and of course all the Western deserts, parks and arches.

The most inspiring thing throughout the book - and a value I hold dear - is to be open to experiences. And open to people too, though that can be a challenge for this introvert. As with our country, we should be so with people - open to the beauty or quirkiness and honest about the flaws through history.

*I received this in an ARC giveaway by Goodreads. I'm not required to write a review, but chose to do so.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting installment, or, I dunno, a different moment in time in Kendzior's evolution, ... probably a little warmer ... and, hmm, ... maybe somewhat less informative or less of an advocacy piece ... but no less worth reading (or, more accurately, very much worthwhile).

I concede I'd be curious to hear what a first-time Kendzior reader would think if they started with this one. For me, it very much felt like the next (and a fitting) chapter in an ongoing serial (or conversation).

Unlike some of her other other books, with this one, I found myself waffling between three types of reactions: On the one hand, having grown up in the military, crisscrossed the nation as a kid in a Ford Country Squire station wagon (initially, sans air conditioning), long-hauled other stretches throughout college, I was entirely enamored with the (family) road-tripping, park-hopping, cave-exploring ... experiencing of America. At the same time, as she is wont to do, Kendzior triggers all of my despondency-laden doomer instincts, currently vacillating between the horror of kleptocracy and the end of the American democratic experiment to the related, but even broader, existential failure to seriously confront the climate crisis. And ... on a more heartening note, Kenzior waxed eloquently on the joys and hopes and fears of parenthood and family (and, alas, loss...). All woven into a complicated and, more often than not, cohesive, compelling, and evocative web.

One of Kenzior's many strengths is her self-awareness and, yes, her (frank, unvarnished, unsparing) honesty. Which is why I kept going back to two sentences, pretty early on in the book.

She writes: I want to be a good mother, a good writer, and a good American. From afar, as a reader, my money says she's gone three for three.

But she concludes the same paragraph with the painful lament: I want my predictions to sound less like eulogies. And, yes, I want that too. Unfortunately, we have to play the hand we're dealt. And, because she is who she is, having studied what she studied and learned what she learned, writing non-fiction (rather than fantasy, sci-fi, or speculative fiction) now, I don't see her being afforded that luxury. And that's a shame (for her and for all of us).

OK, OK,, it's a bit hard for me to be objective here. I was not only open to the author's message and themes, but ... yes ... I did pre-order the book and, yes, this is the fifth book of hers I've read, and ... over the years, I've found her unusually, remarkably, and, often jarringly prescient and far more ahead of the curve, not only in terms of understanding what's coming but explaining in terms that my mind - far too susceptible to denying the obvious - can process. I just wish more ... OK, lots more ... Americans read her work.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this memoir of a bygone America, Kendzior takes us on a cross country road trip that's steeped in the history of places falling into disrepair or in danger of disappearing altogether, mirrored by the state of our democracy. What begins as a journey of nostalgia for a country that once was, the myth of the American dream seems to crumble as the author reconciles a fraught history with the realization that not much has changed. America still can't grapple with its ideology of "the land of the free" and the "pursuit of happiness" while rolling back rights and the increasing difficulty to make ends meet in a country drunk on greedy oligarchs, religious zealotry and hyperindividualism. The rundown roadside attractions, national parks, and fabled highways such as Route 66 are a backdrop to Kendzior's elegy for a country in decline.

What begins as a desire to show her children the country she loves turns into a meditation on the hostile history and tenuous future of America the "great." Well written, thoughtful, and colloquial, The Last American Road Trip is a scenic ride over bumpy back roads.

Thank you to Flatiron books for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

[Babs Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of travel writing (it even paid my bills for a few years), but this doomsday-tripping family vacation(s) was a slog. The demise of America--call me skeptical. A dose of nihilism is healthy, but she does it with such heavy-handed melodrama. Like this nugget: “There is no landscapes more comforting at the end of the world than a petrified forest.” End of the world?

Or this overwrought nugget:

"At the first sign of fire, I began taking too many photos of my children in front of natural wonders, …. Usually I want them to play, not pose. But I needed proof that they had been there, that these lands were their lands once upone a time. A piece of my heart was burning with my country, and I wanted its ashes preserved."

And frankly, so many before her have done it so much better (Waugh, Kesey, Least Heat Moon, Theroux, especially Theroux).

Worse, for a travel writer, I didn’t get a sense of the places she’d been other than what you can glean from a cursory google search. Southwestern Utah was all red rock and other worldly landscapes. Yellowstone was crowded and everyone loved Old Faithful’s blow. And a treatise on Mark Twain left me absolutely no closer to the man than the caricatures she soft-mocked in Hannibal. Perhaps less naval gazing and hand-wringing and more interacting with people and places. And please, less self-congratulatory parenting.

Positives? A few good turns of phrase. Some fun facts about oddballs and crazies. But overall, there's better takes on America than this. So many...

[Sher (in H-Town) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This fell somewhere between whiny travelogue and memoir. I found it depressing even if the political slant matched my own. This was like listening ( I completed the book on audio) to a really boring friend yapping on about their really awesome ability to travel around the US all the while being a really awesome parent or so she told us many times. Not my cup of tea.

[Chelsey Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐
This book is going to haunt me. It mirrors my own experience of loving this beautiful, brutal country even as it keeps breaking my heart. The writing is sharp and the premise hooked me immediately. It’s a portrait of America told through a series of road trips the author takes with her family. It’s a love letter soaked in both anger and tenderness, capturing a country burning from the inside out. History, politics, family, grief, hope, fear, and nostalgia all barreling down Route 66. It made me want to laugh, cry, and jump in my car to see it all before it disappears. This book is heavy. It hits the same notes a few too many times and drifts into repetition, but the message is painfully clear. I’m glad I read it. I think you should too.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a record of the travels of the author with her family, as she attempts to expose her children to America, so that they have an appreciation for what they will have lost if the country comes to an end, which the author clearly believes to be an imminent danger. While I do have serious concerns about the current trajectory of the country and reservations about the short term future, I find the author's fears a bit hyperbolic and overblown. That said, her descriptions of their travels are both entertaining and enlightening. I have visited some of the same places, and could relate to her experiences in these places. She has also visited places that I haven't been, and a few of those are now on my list of places I want to visit.

She also has a knack for pointing out the ways we have white washed our history, showing how the stories we tell about the places she visited fail to reflect some of the realities of these places. She is particularly good at highlighting the ways we ignore the racist history of so many of these places. I also found her discussion of the connections of organized crime, white supremacy, and politics in the places like Arkansas and Missouri to be interesting, and I find myself wanting to investigate these issues further.

Overall, I found this to be a good read, and while I share some of the author's concerns about the future, I find her views that there is a vast conspiracy driving the current trends a bit more than I can quite swallow. I think it is more likely that the current trends are driven by simpler motives like greed, ignorance, and fear, rather than some concerted plot. Either way, I think she is right to feel that America's future is in danger, and that to truly love this country, we must confront its flaws and failings in order to overcome them going forward.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Last American Road Trip was a dragging travelogue (of many trips over the years) and rambling memoir mostly ending with political pontifications. The Good: I loved the parts on National Parks (and Caves, where you'd wanna move underground to one of those after reading Kendzior's doomerism). I also enjoyed back stories of the Route 66 or the Ozarks or birthplace of Twain in Missouri, or short history lessons of former Presidents. The Bad and the Ugly: Sadly, it is difficult to get a sense of the actual places and scenery as Kendzior instantly failbacks to her rants and raves that are heavy handed even if you were to share some of her political views.

"I love this country more than anyone I know. But you have to love it honestly. This country has done incredible acts of evil, almost unparalleled evil. And you have to be honest about that. In order to love it, you need to be honest. You can only love the good things and then be honest about the rest. Then your love will be honest too."

“I do not believe in the American Dream, but I believe in American daydreams. The American Dream keeps you working for a future that never comes built on a past that never happened. It is not so much a dream as a value judgement. A pretense of patriotism at a price few can pay and at a cost few can bear. But daydreams don't carry that burden, daydreams are a protected realm free from expectation. They soften things that are hard and bad letting you imagine a past that went better than it did and a future that could go better than it will. Daydreams are private and pointless. No one expects daydreams to come true yet sometimes to one's joyous surprise, they do.”

[Sanjida · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kendzior is our Cassandra, and this book is Bill Bryson by way of the paranoid style. She starts in Missouri, where she lives, and works her way outward through the lower 48 states, and then back to Missouri and underground through its caves. I lived in St Louis once, so these are the parts I appreciated the most and found the strongest.

[Tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars. Wonderful informative book. Rtc.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kendzior wrote, “Sometimes a book takes you to another place, and sometimes it clarifies where you are.” (p. 183) Her book does both. Approximately two parts travelogue, one part political rant, The Last American Road Trip feels a little bit short on hope. I most appreciated the descriptions of national parks and the author’s experiences with her family while on the road. The story about the stranger who bought them pie was especially touching. Much in the book would resonate with parents, but the author may be alienating herself from a number of potential readers by the strong stance she takes on certain issues. And for all her talk about rights, the rights of perhaps the most vulnerable group in our country, the unborn, are clearly not taken into account. Ironic considering “Every death matters,” she herself said, “especially that of a child” (p. 201).

[Gillian Dauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Midwest is like that. If you stick with it, it will reward you. I’ve been disappointed in the Midwest, but I’ve never been betrayed by it, because it wears its heart and its wounds in the open.”

I agree. 4 stars.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review coming later

[Margarita Ibbott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A family road trip through middle America carrying a political punch. Kendzior takes us with her to visit Route 66, National Parks and small town America as she sees the deterioration of the political landscape.

It is both heartbreaking and intriguing to listen to this audiobook as her journey included both pre- and post-pandemic travel. There are stops in unique museums (barbwire), famous rest stops and iconic roadside attractions (Cadillac Ranch). This is has cultural references, history lessons and current social commentary.

The reason I really liked it was how she weaved historic tidbits with current events and family travel. A travel memoir with opinions.

Worth a read but be prepared to hear about the effects of political change. I recommend this book.

Thanks to Netgallery for the advance copy audiobook.

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the eARC!

I loved this book. Sarah Kendzior is a gorgeous writer - there were so many sentences that I highlighted - both because they moved me and because the WAY it was said was particularly pleasing or profound.
This is my first Kendzior book, but it definitely won't be my last. I had a bit of familiarity with her because I listened to some of her previous podcast, Gaslit Nation, so her views weren't a surprise to me, except, perhaps, just how much she loves America. I was impressed by how vulnerable she allowed herself to be in writing this.
This is a really unique book - it's more than a memoir, more than a history of America, more than a history of places or people, more than a travel book. It's all of that, and something extra.
I appreciated her sense of urgency to visit places that may not exist in the future - national parks, caves, route 66. Kendzior has a unique way of stirring nostalgia in a reader, even for places they've never been and experiences they've never had.
I think the only thing that would make this book better, was a map (which, of course, I can provide for myself via Google).

[Deanna (she_reads_truth_365)]

Thank you to @macmillian.audio for the gifted audiobook. All opinions are my own.

Bookish thoughts: The audio was narrated by the author. I listened at 1.75x speed.

This book is part memoir, part political history about a family who takes a road trip around The United States during the COVID pandemic. I enjoyed when the author talked about all the national parks her family visited and the history behind it. At times, the book was too political for me but overall it was an interesting story.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely, heartbreaking elegy for what I used to love about America: adventure, freedom, connection, HOPE. Kendzior writes beautifully about the various trips she and her family have taken on the American roads and the wild, wonderful sites and people they found along the way. Sad.

[Jake Kilroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarah Kendzior articulates so much of what I’ve long perceived as the American paradox, that it could be such a beautiful and engaging place deserving of fascination while being a relentless force run by cruel and/or selfish ghouls—that a person could love this country and thus want it to ultimately become the place it pretends, advertises, and perhaps wishes to be, not what it so very often proves to be.

America is a place where you can stand before one of the most spectacular offerings of Earth’s natural beauty—a vista that has the potential to challenge your understanding of color, size, and faith—and then when you check your phone for directions to the next panorama, just as magnificent and yet totally different, you discover the government that protected this serene glory has taken away another one of your rights. If not that, then it’s another tragedy. At one point, Kendzior notes that there was an American mass shooting every day of her family vacation.

Whether you’re observing a breathtaking landscape or connecting within a colorful community, there is so much that is wonderful and interesting about this country—and that could be said about any country, really—but America is unique in that it’s largely considered the world’s only superpower these days while marketing itself to its own people as a quaint nation of baseball, barbecues, and the blues.

Kendzior is someone who has spent much of her career writing about the political villains, corporate criminals, and cultural grifters stripping this country for parts as it slides into autocracy—exceptionally aware of the nation’s history of violence, cruelty, and exploitation, and how these pillars remain today—but she is still a mother who wants her children to grow up interested in and curious about the good (while surely aware of the bad).

She wants her children to choose the country that celebrates the insight of Mark Twain rather than the one that admires the career of Henry Kissinger. She knows America is many things—a lot of good, a lot of bad—and there is value in spending your working days detailing its flaws in hopes of them someday getting fixed, while spending your days off hitting the road with your husband and two kids to explore the very, very grand.

[Sahitya · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been three years since I’ve read a book by the author but I do follow her on socials and have truly come to appreciate her profound writings and scarily prescient predictions for American politics.

So I was surprised to see that she had written a memoir this year, but I still wanted to check it out. But as you expect from Sarah, this is so much more than just her talking about her life experiences. It’s a memoir, travelogue, forgotten history, an ode to America’s natural wonders, a lament of America’s political climate, the joys and perils of motherhood in an age of impending climate disaster - all wrapped into one profound package. It’s depressing at times and wondrous at others, sad at the decline the author is witnessing across the country, but also joyous about being able to experience the beauty the country still has left to offer, together with her family.

As someone who really is a zero outdoorsy person and hates hiking or even just being too much in nature, this book shouldn’t have been for me but the author won me over with her writing. It’s been a while since I’ve highlighted so many paragraphs in a book. She is a tremendous wordsmith and all her contradictory feelings about America permeate every single word in this book. I don’t know who is the ideal reader is for this book, but if you’re a fan of Sarah’s writing, or belong to a cross country road-tripping family, then you might find something for yourself in these pages.

[Mike S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quest to take the family to all the National Parks before climate change or the government destroys them. I hadn't read Sarah Kendzior before but this was compelling and from a place and mindset I appreciated. It's always a trick to remember that most of us (on both sides) didn't and don't want what's happening and we're basically all the same and just trying to survive and find meaning where we can. It made me more excited for my trip to the U.P. later this summer, as Pictured Rocks was discussed and also framed as a "locals really don't want you to know how breathtaking this place is and also don't really want you to stay or to share the knowledge; it's a secret best kept to yourself so everyone else doesn't ruin it." The National Parks really are one of the greatest parts of the U.S. and one of the things worth fighting for and preserving. A lot of the travel was also set amongst the threat of COVID as well as "freak" ecological events/disasters that keep happening (fires and floods chiefly here) and it cast a bit of a lurking apocalyptic vibe that certainly foreshadows the current vibes.

[Kandis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this part memoir, part family travelogue that also included an abundance of mini history lessons and commentary on United States politics and events. This is the first book I've read by Kendzior, and I found her writing to be both witty and beautiful. Much of the book resonated with me and it made me want to be more intentional about traveling the United States, teaching my children, and appreciating things as they are even while the world constantly changes. The doom and gloom narrative was a bit much for me, but *sigh*, she could be right. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

[Jolanta (knygupė) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

[Ashton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting listen with a lot of fun facts about Missouri

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore this book by Sarah Kendizoir! She lives in Missouri (in the St. Louis area,) and her travel adventures are poignant, lovely and hilarious. As a result of her travel descriptions, I have added so many places to my growing list of national parks, caves and historical towns that I can’t wait to visit.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved taking this road trip with Sarah Kendzior and her family. In 2017 Sarah decided that she wanted to show her children America the beautiful while it still had a democracy. Their road trips across America chronicled 8 years of visiting landmarks, Route 66 and various national parks. Her writing style is lovely and descriptive of the love she has for this country. “Escape to places that make you feel very small only because they are very large - in a purposefully ridiculous way or in a naturally awe-inspiring way”.

[Cara Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal story told with poetic prose, highlighting the good, the bad, and the ugly of US history.

[Sarah Clement · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not quite what I expected it to be, but in a good way (mostly). I quite liked that this was not some epic continuous road trip, but about a series of road trips over years for a family with jobs and kids in school. It being over years also allowed for you to feel the real sense of change, from the perspective of a journalist who both loves and knows America, personally and professionally. It has, at times, the flavour of a less funny Bryson book, with interesting facts and anecdotes about often forgotten places. I think the most off-putting parts were the sort of stereotypical navel gazing, at times naïve reflections on America from someone who would probably benefit from looking up a bit more and not pathologising changes that have also occurred more broadly, beyond America's borders. But overall an enjoyable read - probably more a 3.5 than a 5, but it made me crave another American road trip.

[Shelby (catching up on 2025 reviews) · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP by Sarah Kendzior

I'm beyond thankful to @flatiron_books & @macmillan.audio #macaudio2025 for my gifted copies.

📖 The Last American Road Trip by Sarah Kendzior is a unique blend of memoir and political history that follows the author and her family as they journey across the U.S. during a time of national upheaval. In response to rising autocracy and political chaos, Kendzior sets out to show her children the country’s beauty and contradictions before it changes beyond recognition.

💭 The Last American Road Trip was my first time reading Kendzior, and it absolutely won’t be my last!! As someone who often wrestles with my relationship to the United States, this memoir resonated in a way that felt both personal and timely. I’ve long struggled with the contradiction of feeling connected to this country while also being deeply troubled by its history and ongoing injustices. Kendzior’s words gave voice to thoughts I’ve had but couldn’t always express. Reading this while in my own “road trip era” added another layer of meaning, as Kendzior and her family journeyed across the country, uncovering the history behind various landmarks (much of it uncomfortable or painful). This memoir is not always easy, but it’s thoughtful, honest, and deeply affecting. And it left me feeling seen.

🎧 I alternated between my physical copy and the audio. Listening to the audiobook, narrated by the author, made this memoir all the more impactful. I wholeheartedly recommend either format!

📌 Available now!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love road trips, so I found Sarah Kendzior's rambling (in a good way) accounts of her family road trips totally engaging. Since she is based in Missouri, much of her travels involved the middle of the country and areas I haven't been too. Ms. Kendzior is an equal opportunity traveller finding as much joy in obscure locations (e.g. the remote development at the heart of the Whitewater scandal) and bizarre tourist traps (e.g. Cadillac Ranch in Texas) as in the crown jewel National Parks.

But if you're familiar with Sarah Kendzior's previous political titles, you won't be surprised that there is an undercurrent of melancholy regarding the sad state of our national affairs as well as the darker histories behind the places she is visiting.

If for some reason you read this and it's not to your liking, be sure to read the first half of the last chapter - describing journeys to caves - before you give up completely. Kendzior chronicles the strange history of Kentucky caves, the enslaved people who mapped them out and guided the first visitors, as well as the "cave wars" that occurred after the Civil War as cave owners competed for tourists. This is followed by an equally interesting section on Missouri caves which includes the story of a man who claimed to be the 102-year old Jesse James.

Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron books for providing a pre-publication egalley .

[Marco M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a strangely cathartic read as a Canadian. It was like reading a eulogy for a friend that hasn't died yet.