The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today

When I started reading The Routes of Man I thought it was going to be about famous roads in civilization. I was mostly wrong. It’s actually a very engrossing modern day worldwide road trip. Conover is an interesting guy and in The Routes of Man he takes the reader to many of the most desolate, dangerous and delightful places on Earth and introduces us to some of the individuals who live there. He travels the most remote roads and rivers of Peru to explore the illegal mahogany harvesting occurring there. From Tibetan ice river treks to the new “self-driving clubs” enabling wealthy Chinese to drive the brand new roadways to the hellhole called Lagos Nigeria, Conover strives to provide the character of the people and places and when possible the beauty. A common theme for each venue is how the changes in roads will impact the citizens of the area and that the changes appear to be inevitable. For some the story may be a little bit dry, but I liked it and give The Routes of Man a good read.

My praise to Ted for his clear sentences and yet descriptive writing that gives one a feeling and vision of the journey. I like his writing enough that I will seek his other books. My son is a biologist, my science minor in preparation of my teaching degree and my age (72) give me some background to what is being said throughtout the book. I am not yet finished and I am recommending the book to my friends. the findings and the Title have the main theme of these routes of our world. The research and actual adventures make for the perfect view of the particular route being described. The stories are like short stories gathered in one book so this is a good read for me. My husband has had Parkinsons for 18 years and I do not find time to read as I used to. I am his caregiver --we try to do things together most of the time. Whatever your age or life --I feel this book is a MUST READ!

As a highway engineer, specializing in traffic operations, my incentive for reading this book was to see roads from a different perspective. I picked the book up at a public signing by the author and had the chance to hear him speak about his experiences. I find it interesting to read about cultures that are decades behind the states when it comes to sprawl and mobility; that are envious of the glorified benefits of the mobility that we have enjoyed for decades, while ignoring the socio-economic consequences. You want to travel with Mr. Conover and look his companions in the eye and ask if they really know what they are getting themselves into. Overall, a good read.

Ted Conover must be an amazing dinner companion. Hes managed to write an entire book about fascinating adventures without once bragging about how adventurous he is. The modest tone aside, this is a really neat book. I heard of it shortly after a heated discussion with a friend about the pros and cons of development, including roads, in the developing world. Through visits to several very different places, Mr. Conover addresses many of the questions Ive been pondering: the loss of ancient culture vs. the arrival of modern advantages... the spread of disease vs. the ability to treat it... the inevitability(?) of inequality vs. the chance to raise the standard of living of a whole population. The book is essentially a travelogue, full of first-person impressions and the voices of people Mr. Conover met on his journeys. But its also illuminated and deepened by secondary research and, thanks to the authors willingness to acknowledge his own biases and speculations, one of the most balanced pieces of non-fiction writing Ive read in a long time. (BTW, I agree w/the critics at Bookmarks Magazine--the subtitles a little misleading. It kind of makes it sound like this will be an academic treatise on global interconnectedness, and so I had certain expectations for this book that werent met. But actually, that turned out to be a good thing. It was _better_ than I expected it to be!)

Ted Conover is right about one thing, the emergence of roads in places where they previously does not exist is changing our global environment, both natural and business. What he does not do is take a stand on whether or not this is a good thing, bad thing or a mixed blessing. We are given a smattering of anecdotes regarding how roads are impacting places around the globe where they previously had no impact. We are not told if this is really anything good, bad or other wise. For example, he tells us the story of mahogany export in the jungles of Peru. We hear a very detailed blow by blow description of the trip but no real description of how the road is impacting or bettering the world. The same holds true for the descriptions of roads in China and India. They all have colorful stories but dont really give any solid examples or prove a theme. All in all it is a weak work because it tries to tell several stories but ends up telling none.

ok

Ted Conover is the ideal travel companion. He seems equally comfortable standing in a swanky apartment in the Upper East Side, and tramping through the rain forest of Peru. In this book he takes us to places wed otherwise never see: One day were riding a mahogany raft down the Mother of God River in Peru, another day were being herded through a dusty check-point in Ramallah. We get to know people wed never otherwise meet: an African truck driver, teenagers from a remote Himalayan village, and an ambulance crew in Lagos, Nigeria. Roads connect these people. So does Conovers unerring eye for detail, and his pitch-perfect ear for language. This book is more than just an adventure: its an invitation to understand each other and to know the world in which we live.

Using widely selected specific examples, Conover deftly weaves stories that illustrate the universal in the particular; inspires me to look at his earlier works.

We love roads, and we come to hate them. Anyone, writes Conover in his opening paragraph, who has benefited from a better road--a shorter route, a smoother and safer drive--can testify to the importance of good roads. But when humans strive, we also err, and it is hard to build without destroying. That contradiction, that tension underlies the book. A road from Perus Altiplano into the jungle allows access to valuable mahogany trees, but also threatens primitive people and an established ecology. In East Africa, a road that is a clear economic boon to many has also helped the spread of AIDS, via truckers and prostitutes along its length. Roads are integral to development, and development can look disastrous. There is nothing armchair about Conovers reporting. He clearly has a library and has read widely, but each of the six chapters is written from inside a culture, whether the author is zipping along the new highways of China or riding inside an ambulance through the teeming, chaotic city of Lagos, Nigeria. Its a book full of people, and the conflicts are inevitable. Why, a friend asks the author, would he go to Lagos, a city which Conover admits has few museums, not too many antiquities, only a handful of public spaces or buildings of note, and stunningly little natural beauty. It does, however, have a reputation for crime, and lots of lots of people. Because people are interesting, Conover says, and So is crime. So are the politics of Israel and Palestine--and the chapter on the roads of the West Bank is the best piece of journalism Ive ever read about that conflict. Conover explores the Israeli checkpoints in the company of both Palestinians and the Israeli soldiers who try to control them. Its degrading to both sides. The soldiers are looking for guns, explosives and suicide bombers, and most Palestinians are simply trying to get to work, or get home. Israels management of the West Bank often comes down to restricting the travel of the Palestinians, and when Conover is in line with them as they move on foot toward a pair of turnstiles, an exercise in gradual compression, the reader gets a visceral feel for their frustration and humiliation. The soldiers dont like it either. Innocent civilians...are inevitably damaged by the armys work in the territories, Conover writes. He spends weeks with an Israeli commander and his men, who not only run the checkpoints but sometimes tear up Palestinian houses in search of arms. Its bad for the families, the commander says, But whats not plain until the fifteenth time is that its bad for you. Six fascinating travels interspersed with engaging personal essays: a great book.

This book examines the culture that exists around the road, because of the road. All of the journeys Conover undertakes and the people he meets are directly influenced by the roads they travel. This book is about how culture changes with different types of roads. I think it is clear that Conover prefers lots of culture to high speed travel that good roads bring (see the section about India and the rural teacher who comments on too much culture), and therefore creation of a transoceanic highway would destroy a fragile culture balance that exists in the Peruvian Andes, something that he would like to revisit but feels will be gone before he or anyone else can make it back. Thanks, Mr. Conover, for allowing us to travel with you and showing us what to look for in our travels.