The Road to Inequality
How the Federal Highway Program Polarized America and Undermined Cities

Shows how highways facilitated the sorting of Democrats and Republicans along urban-suburban lines, polarizing the politics of metropolitan development.

Clayton Nall (Author)

9781108405492, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 March 2018

186 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.2 cm, 0.28 kg

'… is a useful addition to the historical literature on the Interstates … Nall's book is worthwhile reading, both for its insights concerning connections between Interstate highways to politics in [the] United States.' Bruce Seely, H-FedHist

The Road to Inequality shows how policies that shape geographic space change our politics, focusing on the effects of the largest public works project in American history: the federal highway system. For decades, federally subsidized highways have selectively facilitated migration into fast-growing suburbs, producing an increasingly non-urban Republican electorate. This book examines the highway programs' policy origins at the national level and traces how these intersected with local politics and interests to facilitate complex, mutually-reinforcing processes that have shaped America's growing urban-suburban divide and, with it, the politics of metropolitan public investment. As Americans have become more polarized on urban-suburban lines, attitudes towards transportation policy - a once quintessentially 'local' and non-partisan policy area - are now themselves driven by partisanship, endangering investments in metropolitan programs that provide access to opportunity for millions of Americans.

1. Introduction
2. How highways facilitate partisan geographic sorting
3. Highways polarize metropolitan political geography
4. Transportation becomes a partisan issue
5. Implications for transportation policymaking
6. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Transport planning & policy [RPT], Urban & municipal planning [RPC], Central government [JPQ], Politics & government [JP], Population & demography [JHBD], Sociology [JHB], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Society & social sciences [J], History of the Americas [HBJK]