January 9 2021

The National Road: Dispatches from a Changing America (2020) 

by Tom Zoellner

As a journalist and consummate traveller who has criss-crossed America dozens of times, Zoellner has seen changes in the national landscape - which he chronicles in this book, which is part memoir, part travelogue, and part journal in a work reminiscent of Steinbeck's Travels With Charley.

Zoellner feels Americans move less today than any time within the last 50 years; we are  more settled - or perhaps more set in our ways?  He says there are "winner cities" (e.g., Portland, Austin, DC, San Francisco) and cities that have faded as manufacturing has moved to Asia and as farming has become more corporate (e.g., Cairo, IL and Gloversville, NY).

In the chapter "The National Road", Zoellner describes the first interstate highway; commissioned by Thomas Jefferson in 1806, it ran from Cumberland MD to Vandalia IL and is now lined with Dollar Stores and Walmarts (following its predecessor Woolworth's).  He includes some interesting retail history in this chapter.

"Hoop of the World" derives from Black Elk's description of the world, along with Zoellner's attempts to climb the highest peak in every state, and some of the adventures and people he met.

"Late City Final" recalls Zoellner's first news job in a small town paper, and he laments the demise of newspapers "whose disappearance came in tandem with the unprecedented spread of lies in high places" (p 123) amid the rise of the internet.

Other chapters highlight more changes across America.  While only a select offering of the current state of our country, The National Road is a fascinating read.

June 21

Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent (2012)
By Edward Luce

Many writers today try to analyze America's problems and suggest fixes, but this book was actually published prior to the current administration.  I read only the first half of the book, but it was provocative enough - and depressing enough - to warrant a mention (and a reminder to me to get back to finishing it).

This alarming and thought-provoking book describes (in journalist Luce's opinion) how and why the US has cut down spending on education, science, and research - all areas of innovation that made America a leader from the 1950s through ~2000.  One problem is that the two main political parties spend way too much time getting elected and not nearly enough in coming together to solve problems of the nation and the world.  Most of our industrial giants' big customers are overseas (and are there any major steel plants even left in the US?)  - and the middle class is being squeezed as more companies staff their positions with temp workers paid by a staffing agency offering no benefits, therefore resulting in more job changes and less company loyalty (and perhaps less innovation) - and resulting in great pay disparity among different classes of employees.  Luce also worries about possible cultural clashes growing out of the new Tea Party movement.

Even though I did not yet finish reading this book, it is clear that Luce foresaw the divided country that is the new American reality.