Book description
In this history of roads and what they have meant to the people who
have driven them, one of Britain's favourite cultural historians reveals
how a relatively simple road system turned into a maze-like pattern of
roundabouts, flyovers, and spaghetti junctions. Using a unique blend of
travel writing, anthropology, history and social observation, he
explores how Britain's roads have their roots in unexpected places, from
Napoleon's role in the numbering system to the surprising origin of
sat-nav. Full of quirky nuggets of history, such as the day trips
organised to see the construction of the M1 and the 2. 5m Mills and
Boons used to build the M6 Toll Road, On Roads also celebrates
innovators whose work we take for granted, such as the designers of the
road sign system. On subjects ranging from speed limits to driving on
the left, and the 'non-places where we stop to the unwritten laws of
traffic jams, these hidden stories have never been told together, until
now. Joe Moran is a Reader in Cultural History at Liverpool John
Moores University. He writes regularly for the Guardian, New Statesman
and FT, and has been tipped by the Times Higher as one of the
bestselling academics of the future. He is the author of Queuing for
Beginners [9781861978417], and according to David Kynaston is
'single-handedly transforming the history of everyday life in modern
Britain'.
