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, clover-leafs 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. He visits the Roman role in the way our roads are numbered, the ancient sat-nav systems of China of 2600BC and the unknown demonstrations against by-passes in the 1920s, and ends up at the roots of today's arguments about road pricing and road rage. Full of quirky nuggets of history, On Roads also celebrates the often overlooked people whose work we take for granted, such as Percy Shaw, the inventor of the catseye, Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert, the designers of the road sign system, and Charles Forte, the entrepreneur behind the service station. These stories of our past shed light on hidden changes in our society, the relation between people and nature and the invisibility of the mundane.And - 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 - they have never been told together, until now.
On Roads: A Hidden History
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Review
'A beautifully-written, quiet masterpiece...
Moran's genius is to show us what was right in front of us all along.' -- Bee Wilson, Sunday Times
'Joe Moran has a genius for turning the prosaic poetic - this is a tone poem in tarmac.' - Peter Hennessy -- Peter Hennessy
'On Roads deserves high praise... an original and fascinating excursion... never anything but dry, witty and erudite.' - Christopher Hart, Literary Review
-- Christopher Hart, Literary Review
'On Roads, a beautifully-written, quiet masterpiece, looks at our experience of roads from the motorway age onwards' - Bee Wilson, Sunday Times -- Bee Wilson, Sunday Times
'This is a really necessary book - one wonders why it hasn't been done before' - Giles Foden, Condé Nast Traveller -- Giles Foden, Condé Nast Traveller
'What Moran manages above all, in this entertainingly contrarian book, is to reclaim the road as a country of its own.' - Robert Macfarlane, The Guardian
-- Robert Macfarlane, The Guardian
`Expansive, unexpected cultural history... it's loaded with strange and delightful details ... I've got many pages folded over' -- Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic
`Fascinating, thought-provoking and entertaining ... A wonderful book. Moran has fast become Britain's foremost explorer and explainer of the disregarded.' Juliet Gardiner, author of 'Wartime: Britain 1939-1945' -- Juliet Gardiner, author of 'Wartime: Britain 1939-1945'
`Wonderful. Whoever could have known that roads were so fascinating?'
-- Dominic Sandbrook, author of 'White Heat'
`a fascinating insight...by one of Britain's best cultural-studies academics...a really necessary book.' -- Giles Foden, Condé Nast Traveller
Moran's genius is to show us what was right in front of us all along.' -- Bee Wilson, Sunday Times
'Joe Moran has a genius for turning the prosaic poetic - this is a tone poem in tarmac.' - Peter Hennessy -- Peter Hennessy
'On Roads deserves high praise... an original and fascinating excursion... never anything but dry, witty and erudite.' - Christopher Hart, Literary Review
-- Christopher Hart, Literary Review
'On Roads, a beautifully-written, quiet masterpiece, looks at our experience of roads from the motorway age onwards' - Bee Wilson, Sunday Times -- Bee Wilson, Sunday Times
'This is a really necessary book - one wonders why it hasn't been done before' - Giles Foden, Condé Nast Traveller -- Giles Foden, Condé Nast Traveller
'What Moran manages above all, in this entertainingly contrarian book, is to reclaim the road as a country of its own.' - Robert Macfarlane, The Guardian
-- Robert Macfarlane, The Guardian
`Expansive, unexpected cultural history... it's loaded with strange and delightful details ... I've got many pages folded over' -- Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic
`Fascinating, thought-provoking and entertaining ... A wonderful book. Moran has fast become Britain's foremost explorer and explainer of the disregarded.' Juliet Gardiner, author of 'Wartime: Britain 1939-1945' -- Juliet Gardiner, author of 'Wartime: Britain 1939-1945'
`Wonderful. Whoever could have known that roads were so fascinating?'
-- Dominic Sandbrook, author of 'White Heat'
`a fascinating insight...by one of Britain's best cultural-studies academics...a really necessary book.' -- Giles Foden, Condé Nast Traveller
Review
`Wonderful. Whoever could have known that roads were so fascinating?'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful, engrossing book which needed to be written and deserves to be read
7 July 2009
By Dilberto
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a wonderful, engrossing book which needed to be written and deserves to be read. Funny, engaging, incredibly well-researched and impressively broad in its scope, On Roads tells the fascinating - and it is, truly - postwar history of British roads and the British motorist and is peppered with the sort of extraordinary facts and trivia I can't resist. Bob Geldof working on a roadgang on the M25, a quarter of a million fish being rescued before they started building Spaghetti Junction, and why migrating birds love the A34. Fantastic.
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By Book Lover
Format:Hardcover
I bought this book to give as a present but became too engrossed to give it away. I've always wondered why you tend to see so many kestrels and kites when you're driving along the motorway - and this book explains it all. This is a completely fascinating look at something I - like many other people I'm sure - tend to take for granted. Highly recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By MikeAl
Format:Hardcover
What a delightful book! If at first at first sight you are tempted to think that it just serves to feed the inner nerd you are mightily mistaken. Take the trivial example of road-numbering. Even a brief discussion may tempt some into a detailed perusal of the nearest wall, but that would entail missing out on the crucial revelation that we can blame our road numbers on none other than Napoleon. If that is not interesting then I don't know what is! This instance illustrates one of the aspects which I feel have been missed by other reviewers - the extraordinary range of reference which Moran brings to his subject. While there is no bibliography, just look at the works mentioned in the notes. Virtually all of these are apposite and not there for the purpose of showing off and show that the book is effectively a social and cultural history of roads.
A second feature of the book which seems to have gone unnoticed is the felicity and wit of the author's style which make it a surprisingly entertaining read. He occasionally soars to the lyrical level which driving certain stretches of road can elevate one. He is also capable of coining some very exact phrases.
Having driven along so many roads I thought I knew a great deal about them. Now I know a great deal more. I won't bore anyone with examples - entertain yourselves!
A second feature of the book which seems to have gone unnoticed is the felicity and wit of the author's style which make it a surprisingly entertaining read. He occasionally soars to the lyrical level which driving certain stretches of road can elevate one. He is also capable of coining some very exact phrases.
Having driven along so many roads I thought I knew a great deal about them. Now I know a great deal more. I won't bore anyone with examples - entertain yourselves!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
On Roads?
Another quite quirky purchase that has proved a real winner. Joe Moran has a light touch and has managed to produce a book packed with facts but remains an enjoyable read.
Published 5 months ago by I,Hepple
5.0 out of 5 stars
On Roads
I gave the book to a friend for Christmas and she tells me that she is really enjoying it. It is witty and full of interesting facts about our highways. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Spud
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mind how you go
If you ever go on a road you need this book. It combines hilarious facts (the AA made Ribbentrop an honorary member; they liked the Nazi's autobahns; returning First World War... Read more
Published on 6 April 2011 by D. Cheshire
5.0 out of 5 stars
On Roads - a review
This book is a veritable cornucopia of facts and figures connected with our roads and at times mind boggling when one considers how and from where he has garnered them. Read more
Published on 2 Feb 2011 by Mr. D. G. Morgan
1.0 out of 5 stars
A history of modern roads, by an author who doesn't like them
Despite the cover depicting a country lane or track, the book's subject is predominantly major roads (esp. motorways) built since WWII. Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2010 by J. Robson
4.0 out of 5 stars
A roadmap of social history
Moran views roads not simply as transport routes, but as a focus for charting social history. Over the last century, roads have formed the battleground between safety lobbies and... Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2010 by ceriithomas
4.0 out of 5 stars
King of the road
I gave 'Queuing for beginners' five stars and thoroughly recommend it. When I happened upon this Joe Moran offering I thought I had to read it and bought it in the same batch as... Read more
Published on 4 Sep 2010 by Rob Sawyer
5.0 out of 5 stars
'On Roads' Joe Morab
As someone living on Teesside a big irony is that the one single thing that put us well and truly on the world map - the opening of the world's first proper passenger railway from... Read more
Published on 27 Aug 2010 by WALSHY
4.0 out of 5 stars
the road less travelled...
what makes anyone decide to pick up a book about roads and read it? - probably that they are someone who has spent a considerable proportion of their lives to date on them and... Read more
Published on 27 July 2010 by tortoise girl
3.0 out of 5 stars
WELL REASEARCHED BOOK
This was a very interesting and well researched book. It gave a very clear perspective on roads and the befefits and disadvantages these feature play in our everyday lives. Read more
Published on 4 July 2010 by bibliophile
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