The Road That Made America: A Modern PilgrimS Journey On The Great Wagon Road

In The Bestselling Tradition Of Rinker BuckS The Oregon Trail And Tony HorwitzS Confederates In The Attic, The Road That Made Americais A Lively, Epic Account Of One Of The Greatest Untold Stories In Our NationS HistoryThe EightHundredMile Long Great Wagon Road That 18ThCentury American Settlers Forged From Philadelphia To Georgia, Which Expanded The Country Dramatically In The Decades Before We Ventured West.Little Known Today, The Great Wagon Road Was The Primary Road Of Frontier America: A Mass Migration Route That Stretched More Than Eight Hundred Miles From Philadelphia To Augusta, Georgia. It Opened The Southern Frontier And Wilderness East Of The Appalachian Mountains To AmericaS First Settlers, And Later Served As The Gateway For The Exploration Of The American West. In The Mid1700S, Waves Of European Colonists In Search Of Land For New Homes Left Pennsylvania To Settle In The Colonial Backcountry Of Maryland, Virginia, And The Carolinas. More Than One Hundred Thousand Settlers Made The Arduous Trek, Those Who Would Become The Foundational Generations Of The WorldS First True Immigrant Nation. In Their Newly Formed Village Squares, Democracy Took Root And Bloomed. During The Revolutionary War, The Road Served As The Key Supply Line To The American Resistance In The Western Areas Of The Colonies, Especially In The South.Drawing On Years Of Fieldwork And Scholarship By An Army Of Archeologists, Academics, Archivists, Preservationists, And Passionate History Lovers, James Dodson Sets Out To Follow The RoadS Original Path From Philadelphia To Georgia. On His Journey, He Crosses Six Contiguous States And Some Of The Most Historic And Hallowed Landscapes Of Eastern America, Touching Many Of The NationS Most Sacred Battlefields And Burying Grounds. Due To Its Strategic Importance, Military Engagements Were Staged Along The Great Wagon Road Throughout North AmericaS Three Major Wars, Including The Early Days Of The Bloody French And Indian Conflict And Pivotal Revolutionary War Encounters.In Time, The Great Wagon Road Became AmericaS First Technology Highway, As Growing Roadside Villages And Towns And Cities Became, In Effect, The First Incubators Of AmericaS Early Industrial Age. The People And Ideas That Traveled Down The Road Shaped The Character Of The Fledgling Nation And Helped Define Who We Are Today. DodsonS Ancestors On Both Sides Took The Great Wagon Road To Maryland And North Carolina, Respectively, Giving Him A Personal Stake In Uncovering The RoadS Buried Legacy. An Illuminating And Entertaining FirstPerson History, The Road That Made America Restores This LongForgotten Route To Its Rightful Place In Our National Story.