Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike
240 pages, 6 x 9
15 b&w illus.
Paperback
Release Date:01 Dec 1992
ISBN:9780813519555
Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike
Rutgers University Press
Two American Studies professors from Rutgers University here show how the New Jersey Turnpike--that "ugly icon,'' America's "widest and most traveled'' road--has found its way into the minds, if not the hearts, of artists and drivers alike. In poet Allen Ginsberg, singer Bruce Springsteen, commuters and roadside home owners lulled to sleep by its drone of traffic, this 12-lane asphalt monster has inspired powerful reactions, from admiration to anger. The authors consider the first asparagus patch plowed up to lay the road; the $70,000 salary a contemporary toll-taker can earn with hefty overtime; and the not infrequent lawlessness of the highway patrol. From the gray-flannel-suit diligence that built it, to the mixture of necessity, practicality and venality that maintains it, the New Jersey Turnpike proves to be an enthralling though unlikely subject.
A vivid, authentic and often humorous picture of life within this otherworldly corridor . . . an original and substantial work.
A fascinating account of the best known landmark in the Garden State--the New Jersey Turnpike. . . . If there is anyone out there who believes that a book on a turnpike will be dull and uninspiring, guess again.
An off-beat look at all facets of Turnpike life: the building of New Jersey's most famous road; its toll collectors; rest areas; the people with the turnpike as a neighbor; and more.
Filled with interesting historical information about the roadway, explaining in comic detail the paramilitary mentality of the Turnpike Authority.
An enthusiastic exploration of the eminently user-unfriendly Turnpike's impact on suburban life, graffiti, mass transit, music, art, poetry, folklore, truck-stop sex--all human life as we know it.
Angus Kress Gillespie and Michael Aaron Rockland teach in the American Studies Department at Rutgers University.
