Ike's Road Trip: How Eisenhower's 1919 Convoy Paved the Way for the Roads We Travel

by Brian C. Black

All roads begin somewhere and today’s U. S. highway system began with an unforgettable, exploratory, cross-country ride, led by a 28-year-old Army lieutenant colonel, Dwight Eisenhower. This is the story of his coast-to-coast journey and how the dream of connecting America with roads began.

Before he led the liberation of Europe, before he became our nation’s 34th President, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s made a road trip in 1919 from Washington D.C. to California. The expedition proved to be a crucial chapter in the history of American culture as it laid the groundwork to make automobile travel the fastest and easiest way to move around the country, also setting in motion the nation’s future love affair with cheap crude.


The 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy of eighty-one trucks and other military vehicles traveled more than 3,00 precarious miles along the most famous road of the day, the Lincoln Highway, which ran between New York City and San Francisco. World War I had illustrated the importance of being able to move large amounts of troops and equipment quickly over long distances, and Eisenhower’s mission on the road trip was to evaluate whether the country’s emerging network of paved roadways could handle such a task. It was an experience Eisenhower would never forget.



“The old convoy had started me thinking about good, two-lane highways,” he later wrote. “This was one of the things that I felt deeply about, and I made a personal and absolute decision to see that the nation would benefit by it.” Decades later, as president, he drew on that experience to push through the Interstate Highway Act of 1956.



Ike’s Road Trip adds an important chapter to the story of the midwestern president who is often seen as “America’s grandfather.” Eisenhower will also be seen as a modern visionary during a pivotal his persistent trust in cheap petroleum proved to be a blueprint for modern America as he helped facilitate the most significant energy transition of the twentieth century. Today, we are experiencing perhaps the most important energy transition since Eisenhower’s day—from petroleum to renewables—and that change will require minds as equally visionary as his.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Travel, Presidents

200 pages, Hardcover

Published October 29, 2024

Reviews

[Thomas Isern · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book came to hand during a visit to a fine independent bookstore in Council Grove, Kansas; I picked it up because I had seen notices of its publication, and I am always on the lookout for new works that might help me think in new ways about the history of the Great Plains. In this--the search for understandings of my region--I was rewarded modestly, but substantially. On the other hand, I was disappointed with the book overall in two ways.

First, the Transcontinental Motor Convoy of 1919 is a subject with wondrous narrative potential, but the author does not do it justice. Perhpas he's just not that good a storyteller. Perhaps the (slim) book was not a serious effort.

Second, the author is obsessed with the impact of (cue ominous undertones) fossil fuels. This just wansn't on the mind of Ike and the other participants in the convoy. They were more concerned with sourcing enough gas for their journey than with the economic and environmental consequences of its burning. To make the point that the convoy helped turn the country toward personal vehicles powered by petroleum products is appropriate. To keep hammering it, in judgmental hindsight, is not.

Now, credit where due, here are two ways Ike's Road Trip helps crystallize my thinking.

First, the daunting state of roads in 1919, the Lincoln Highway (route of the convoy across the plains) in particular. It was still a railroad world then. Automobiles and trucks were for local use, unless your physical capacity matched your sense of adventure.

Second, the delineation of Eisenhower as a connecting party with agency--experiencing roads as they were in 1919, seeing the world and particularly the Autobahn, envisioning a strategic highway system, and understanding its transformative potential. One intriguing thought in this line is the parallel of the German highway and road system not with the American highway and road system, but with the American railway system as it unfolded on the plains. Germany built the roads, and expected people and vehicles to follow. That was the way we built railroads on the plains, and it had a strategic aspect. Not so with the way we built roads. It was left to Eisenhower to address that.

[David W. Annand · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is quite possibly the most poorly written book I have ever read. Errors in spelling, grammar, and choice of words abound. The author alleges that “President Warren G Harding” was present when the expedition began in 1919 (Harding became President in 1921).

Time frames are hopelessly and sloppily mixed together and confused. Very little of the book actually concerns the daily brutality of the off-road portion of the trip through the western states.

Finally, Dwight Eisenhower is barely mentioned as a member of the convoy; many chapters don’t mention his name at all. The final couple of chapters buzz through his interwar and presidential years, but these periods were decades after the “road trip.”

The author purports to be a college professor. One can only hope he is a better teacher than a writer. I would give him a C minus on this essay.

[Joey M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally gave up on trying to finish this. Interesting topic, just painfully boring.

[Merilee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is best when discussing Eisenhower. We see his incredible military aptitude, bits of his family background, and his devotion to the US. All of that was fascinating to me. The rest of the book was pretty dull. I've read about the Lincoln Highway before, and the emphasis on corporate interests (including tire companies, merchants, etc) was pretty obvious. I didn't know Tea Houses were a thing in 20th century US, though.

Black makes the argument that Ike, who was responsible for the US Interstate Highway system, was responsible for an energy transition to petroleum, which was spurred his ride on the 1919 cross-country convoy. I'm sure the convoy influenced Eisenhower, but IMO Black makes it out to be a much more significant episode than it was. The book is entitled "Ike's Road Trip" but it wasn't his trip (he just rode along and made reports); the Convoy didn't "pave the way" as much as provide good PR for it; and when Ike's not on the page I was bored. Perhaps it did introduce Ike to the "military-industrial complex" that he disdained.

Black is a scholar, but he doesn't convince me. The blurbs all endorse the importance of the convoy, but other than showing Ike and the general population the need for good roads, it pales in comparison to what Eisenhower saw in Europe in WWII. If Ike hadn't been on the convoy but used the autobahn in Germany, he still would have wanted good roads to help national defense in the Cold War.

Black's final argument, that for our current 21st century energy transition, we need a leader like Ike to persuade us to transition off petroleum, may be true. I don't know who could do that in these divided times but Black might have a point. However, his arguments were strange - actually telling his readers that sabotage is a bad idea; maybe I'm sheltered but is that necessary? Then I looked at his sources, including "How to Blow Up a Pipeline" by Andres Malm. Okay he's serious.

[John Frederick · Rating 4 out of 5]

It may not be fair to call this Ike's Road Trip, as the future president was just one of many characters who played a role in this 1919 adventure across America. But it is an interesting tale just the same. A great uncle born eleven years before the trip had shared stories of the dreadful state of roads in Maryland and Pennsylvania in those days. It should not be surprising, then, that the roads in the sparsely populated western states especially were roads only in the loosest sense of the term.

Some reviewers lament the wandering style the book sometimes exhibits. But there's value in contemplating the implications of the staggering growth of energy consumption in general (and petroleum use in particular) which marked those decades. Ike's Road Trip did not just wander across the country, but it traveled through an economic, political, energy and environmental landscape which was building a case for the automobile and the fuel which powered it. To this point, Black writes, "For the nation, the sway of transportation had certainly swung in the direction of the automobile through stunts such as the convoy of 1919..."

It may again stretch the title, but Black writes often about energy transitions, and argues that we'd be well-served to take some lessons from the transitions which were happening in 1919. "Leaders needed to deftly observe their times and not ignore the undeniable trends. Instead, their task was to help create a society that could benefit and further the trends that were playing out." Too many leaders today, it would seem, are stubbornly lingering in the reality of Eisenhower's lifetime. Ignoring the "undeniable trends" of the 2020s will make this transition much more difficult to negotiate.

[Linda Sander · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is relatively common knowledge, at least among boomers, that as the Allied Supreme Commander in Europe during WW2, Eisenhower was impressed with the impact of the German Autobahn on the rapid movement of Hitler's troops and that this knowledge contributed to his support of the construction of the federal Interstate system in the mid-1950's. The many other factors contributing to the eventual building of this system are discussed in this very readable history of the development of a petroleum-based society which ignored for decades the eventual shortage of petroleum reserves and the environmental consequences of overuse.

Drawing together such events as the Spindletop oil gusher, the competition between gasoline vs battery powered vehicles, the 1919 Transcontinental Motor Train during which the Army transported all manner of military vehicles from Maryland to San Francisco (a trip during which Eisenhower served as an Army observer), the competition between little towns to get the Lincoln Highway routed through their town, and the development of an atomic bomb by Russia, the author fleshes out the story of America's conversion to a petroleum based society.

This is a short and readable history for those interested in how we got where we are today.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am intrigued by all things Eisenhower, making this title an attention-getter for me. Also, my father served in the Army in occupied-Japan, helping build roads among other duties. We take well-designed and maintained roads for granted. I am old enough to remember country roads which often left me nauseous, sometimes our only option for family road trips before major roads were constructed. Black details a convoy Eisenhower coordinated that crossed the U.S. to test roads for military vehicles. The reports include too many issues to name. I feel for the soldiers who had to pull many vehicles from deep mud. Clearly with mechanized vehicles new roads, well-designed and built with tested materials, were critical to the nation's safety. The experiences from this trip helped Eisenhower in other endeavors, namely logistical planning during the war years. He was truly the right man for the time, helping our nation develop through the road system he established.

[Mary Book · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this book, but I agree with previous reviewers about its disjointed nature. I thought the author jumped around in time too much, which made it rather difficult to figure out where we were as the Convoy traversed the nation. Multiple timelines is fine for a novel, but I expect more cohesiveness from non-fiction. I also thought that maps of the route would have been an excellent addition to the narrative. I really wanted to know exactly where the convoy went; sadly, Google Maps is rather hopeless when it comes to showing a route that doesn’t follow a paved path. Having said all that, I found the story to be likable and I learned quite a bit about Eisenhower.

[Daniel Lipsher · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Y)IKEs I didn't like this book

Some interesting information on a military convoy across North America after the Great War. But factual errors (e.g., the Panama Canal is not in the Southern hemisphere) and misstatements, especially in the first half of the book, raise questions about the author's knowledge of whether and how this cross-country trip affected the 20th century. And the conclusion that the real lesson is the transformation to an "energy economy" rather than a transportation, freedom of movement or convenience economy is questionable.

[Mary Erickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was intrigued by this little slice of American history, but this book is boring and poorly written. The timeline is disjointed, jumping forward and backward. I skimmed the last 1/3, so it's really a DNF.

The early years of mixed-use roads also frightened the horses that still frequented passed and let to small-scale steam explosions.

Lol! What?!?

I did appreciate learning a little bit about how the nation transformed from horse to gasoline-powered transportation. A better book would make that subject even more fascinating.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of the 1919 military convoy that traveled from Washington to San Francisco. The mission was to find out how the roads were if a future war required men and equipment get from one coast to another. Dwight Eisenhower was a junior officer on this 2 month, 3,000+ mile cross-country trip.
The trip (along what, now, is known as Rte. 66) proved a massive national need to push to pave major roads. Ultimately, in the 1950s and President Eisenhower's presidency, the Interstate Highway system was created.

[Alexa · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a miss - I am bummed to have spent money on this. I’m typing with a broken wrist so pardon any terseness in this review.

This book is poorly written, structured, and researched. The prose is clumsy. Many paragraphs read like a book report with fact dumps throughout.

I am struggling to understand what research went into this monograph. This book relies mainly on secondary source material, and this may be why there is such a limited focus on Eisenhower. Any Ike content is from other biographies, and has little to do with the road trip itself.

Save your time and money.

[Ken Nilsestuen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with the other reviewers who complained about the grammar and factual problems. Not enough time spent informing us about the trip, too much focus on energy consumption by Americans. I couldn't believe the author talked so much about petroleum, yet I can only remember a single time when the word "diesel" (and not capitalized, even though Diesel is a proper name) appeared in the book. Seems to well deserve a low rating.

[Anthony Kurlan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read similar books in the past. This one seemed to have less if Ike's involvement in the actual trip, and had more emphasis on the use of petroleum (much more 'green' than I expected -- and pretty much irrelevant to the story. Not much of a 'climate change' person; didn't need the lecture at the end of the book.

[Russ Lenth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parts of it were interesting, but the exposition often loses focus. There were sections that seemed out of place, as if six or eight pages fell out on the floor, picked up, and inserted in the wrong place. There are stunning factual errors, such as mis-identifying who was President when the caravan started, and saying that the Panama Canal is in the Southern hemisphere. Just very sloppily done.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting view of Eisenhower’s earlier days and his opinions on America’s hiways in conjunction with the European roadways when compared to ours. He found out on the road to California how lacking we were in good, durable roads when experiencing sand, mud and washed out roads. Also noted was his time in Paris and Germany to see the infrastructure and how we lacked so much.

[Bikerider99 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended as a guide for the development of transportation across the United States. A major military and commercial adventure. A part of history not previously explained and explored. Easy read.

[Nick Carraway · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the other reviews have summarized the many failings of this book: redundancies, grammatical errors, factual errors, weird disorganization, amateurish syntax, and lack of narrative arc. Take these reviews seriously. I'm glad I was able to take it back to the store and get my money back.

[Gary Sawyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing book. Not many details. The book feels like an essay that was padded to make it book length.

[Joel Hebert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty dull narrative voice. Interesting subject but the story didn’t grip me.

[Tim Bevilacqua · Rating 2 out of 5]

Felt at times like the author didn't have enough material, delved way too deep into the context of the moment. Easy read but also not very sophisticated.

[Phyllis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great idea, disappointing execution.

[Glenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointed that Ike really was not a larger part of the story.