Super-Scenic Motorway - by Anne Mitchell Whisnant (Paperback)

About the Book

Super-Scenic Motorway: A Blue Ridge Parkway History

Book Synopsis

The most visited site in the National Park system, the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway winds along the ridges of the Appalachian mountains in Virginia and North Carolina. According to most accounts, the Parkway was a New Deal "Godsend for the needy," built without conflict or opposition by landscape architects and planners who traced their vision along a scenic, isolated southern landscape. The historical archives relating to this massive public project, however, tell a different and much more complicated story, which Anne Mitchell Whisnant relates in this revealing history of the beloved roadway.

Review Quotes

"A definitive history. . . . We get the more colorful and interesting real story."--Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A fascinating account. . . . Insightful and elegantly written. . . . By far the most thorough and well-researched history of the Parkway to date."--Georgia Historical Quarterly

"A lucid analysis. . . . [Whisnant's] work provides vital lessons on historic and environmental preservation."--Virginia Magazine of History and Biography

"A valuable book for those of us who would understand how political and commercial pressures affected what many of us believe to be the wonders of the built world. . . . It's a well-researched, richly detailed and thoughtful examination of a monumental public works project that, for all its turmoil, turned out beautifully."--Charlotte Observer

"An impressive documentation of the creation of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the resultant transfer of considerable acreage from one type of human exploitation (farming, lumber, etc.) to another type (scenic-tourism)."--Southern Cultures

"Elegantly reveals the Parkway's history. . . . Decidedly revisionist . . . Whisnant's engagingly written and carefully researched account brings to light a more accurate picture of how the Blue Ridge Parkway came to be."--Appalachian Journal

"Strips away decades of such myth-making fostered by tourism officials and the park service and details the social, economic, and political battles that shaped a two-lane road that is the most visited place managed by the park service."--News & Observer

"The deliberate, scholarly work promises, in the author's words, to 'take us from a place many think they understand to one few would recognize, along a Blue Ridge Parkway almost no one knows.'" --Mountain Xpress

"This book honestly describes the often not-so-pretty and not-so-harmonious history of a scenic parkway that seems so very pretty and harmonious today, and should engage anyone interested in the Blue Ridge Parkway and the history of the diverse region through which it passes." -- Journal of Appalachian Studies

"This well-documented and well-researched study, often presented in strident style, provides a new perspective on the parkway's creation. . . . Super-Scenic Motorway's invaluable documentation will help readers better understand the parkway's complex development."--North Carolina Historical Review

About the Author

Anne Mitchell Whisnant received her Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is now Director of Research, Communications, and Programs for the Office of Faculty Governance and adjunct assistant professor of history. She has worked as a consultant to the National Park Service and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. More information about the book is available online at www.superscenic.com.