Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway Book

When Americans debate the big things - health care, energy, transportation -- the standard narrative is to find two sides and cast one as the big bad villain and one as the little guy just tryin' to save his home/business/children. It's the easiest thing to do, and it's how our media, and its consumers, pretend that we have dealt with a complex issue.

Take transportation, for example. Since the 1950s, the country has solved the problem of moving people and some commerce over vast swaths of land by building highways. Now, miles of asphalt take you from city to city. But starting in the 1970s, the attitude about highways has changed. "Not so fast," we say. Some maintain that if you build it, they will come and they will want Wal-Marts and cheap housing. This is sprawl, and this is bad. The other side (see, even I do it...) contends that highways, especially through rural areas, bring jobs and might keep dying parts of our country on life support.

Matt Dellinger's "Interstate 69" does none of the above, which is why it is a brilliant book that deserves a wide audience. Dellinger's tale of why Interstate 69 starts in Michigan near Canada and ends just outside of Indianapolis takes no sides, sympathizes with everyone and demonizes no one. What Dellinger does is simple: he lets those with the most at stake tell their stories. And if you think that hearing at length from people who staff economic development groups in southern Indiana or northern Louisiana will be boring, prepare to be most pleasantly amazed. These hardworking everyday Americans are extremely interesting and each have played a role in how the future of getting around the country will look. Even the lobbyists are portrayed as human beings with real expertise (and the biggest paychecks...)

Dellinger explains policy, but also tells stories that you can see unfolding in front of you, from a meeting in a Victorian home to a ribbon cutting on a hot Mississippi day. His story takes in many of the big trends of our time that have affected every one in some way: NAFTA, environmentalism, direct action activism, the need for commerce in desolate towns, the growth of the Internet, party politics, traffic, changes in how we perceive the American dream.

The stories of the attempts to extend Interstate 69 to Brownsville, Texas all fit together, if uneasily -- just like our state-federal form of government. What's good for Indiana may not be good for Texas now, although building one road that would connect the two might be good for the whole country in the long run.