Dear Sophia,

Remember how I told you that I am in an Auto class this semester? Well, recently I was

assigned to read a book called Car Country by Christopher Wells. After reading the book, we

were assigned to write an email to anyone of our choice describing the book and what all Ive

learned from it. As you probably already guessed, the person I picked to write to was you. I

decided to write to you because I know that your knowledge on cars is vague and I wanted to

share a little insight on one of the biggest advancements in U.S. history with you. The book is

divided into sections/chapters. The first section is about the period before cars were introduced.

In this section, Wells explains how a group of reformers campaigned for better roads. Roads that

werent filled with disease, trash, and (horse and human) waste. These groups didnt just want

better roads, they wanted to remake all the roads in the U.S. entirely. Youre probably thinking

the push for better roads had something to do with cars right? Well think again; the desire came

from the urbanization and industrialization that occurred after the Civil War. Although, you

probably mostly remember being taught that the industrialization period in the United States was

very beneficial to our country, it had some negative consequences as well. More industrialization

meant more coal operated machinery. As you probably already know, more coal operated

machinery means a couple of things: pollution in the air from the emissions. What surprised me

was that these factories just dumped their waste anywhere they pleased like on the streets. The

streets in America gave life for socializing, business and entertainment. Keeping that in mind, it

is easy to rationalize with the reform groups that wanted to improve their roads. In the 1880s,

the push for better, cleaner roads became a national debate. The first step towards improving the

roads was to remove the existing sewage systems. By late 1880s and early 1890s the movement

started. The roads were completely redone, bottom to top. To fix the roads, they had to first go
underground and reconstruct the sewers. Once the sewer systems were replaced, they repaved the

roads and installed lights and wires, and also had more street cleaners. During this time, the

railroads and horse drawn carriages had existed to link the country and city folk. As time went on

and technology started advancing, the underground subway was created. Also during this era, the

good-roads movement was established. This was a group of people who wanted to improve not

only the urban streets, but the rural roads as well (since they were left out). However, in 1904,

only 7% of rural roads were improved. As we can both voutch for this, considering our entire

hometown is surrounded by nothing but unpaved, pot hole consisting roads. The second section

goes over the dawn of the automobiles. The Model T (designed by Ford) came out to the public

in 1908. By 1910, there was 187,000 on the streets. By 1920, there was 8.1 million (talk about a

boom). Section three of this book was about creating what is now known as the car country. In

this chapter, it goes over the Motor-Age Geography, which focuses on how since the auto boom,

there was new transportation/land-use policies. For example, there were more car dependent

landscapes and new traffic control regulations such as speed limits. Next is the Fueling the

Boom section; this is where Wells goes over how American automobile industry transitioned to

more oil use and emphasized how gas taxes became the new way for the government to pay for

rebuilding roads. In this section, the Pennsylvania Turnpike was introduced around 1950-1951.

This was the first highway and it consisted of 167 miles. You should be thankful for this

creation, otherwise you would have never discovered your need for speed. Wells also discusses

what is called the Paths Out of Town, this is where I learned that during this time of cars

becoming more popular, there were regulations for one mile of road for every square mile of

land (that is a lot of roads!!). Something that I also found interesting and that I didnt know in

this section was that highways were not so much built for speed (like why you use them) but
instead, for an automotive escape into the wild. The last section of the book covered the

aspects of new patterns, standards, and landscapes. I learned that we probably would not have

grown up where we did if it wasnt for the federal government and post-war housing increasing

incentives for suburban areas. All in all, this book has taught me and hopefully you now, how the

automobile industry greatly affected American landscape and environment. Just think about how

much we love McDonalds; without all the changes that occurred over time involving the

automobile, are lazy-selves would never be able to go through a drive-thru.

Your dearest friend,

Taylor