The Hardest, Longest Race
Price:- $19.99
Product Summery
From Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Eric Moskowitz comes the riveting story of the first true coast-to-coast automobile race in U.S. history, a fast-paced tale of the gritty and determined drivers who braved hostile terrain, mechanical failure, and, shockingly, sabotage, to take home the gold.
In 1909, America was home to 253 automakers, a landscape of visionaries, schemers, and would-be barons of the new century. But when playboy millionaire M. Robert Guggenheim announced an audacious āOcean to Oceanā contest from New York City to the Seattle Worldās Fair, only three companies were brassy enough to show up at the starting line: Acme, Ford, and Shawmut.
Oddsmakers favored the Acme and Itala, a pricy import also joining the race, while dismissing the pint-sized Ford ā a homely little number called the Model Tā and the long-shot Shawmut, struggling to survive after a factory fire. In fact, many didnāt believe any of the cars would reach Seattle at all, as they would need to forge a 4,106-mile course of mountain ranges, mud bogs, washed-out wagon bridges, and harrowing canyon trails, long before the era of asphalt highways, seatbelts, and service stations.
But Henry Ford was intent on proving that the Model T could go the distance and beat out the muscular luxury cars---and he didnāt plan to leave it to chance. Indeed, a little over three weeks after the race began, a Ford crossed the line hours ahead of the Shawmut.
Except that victory was a fraud.
The Hardest, Longest Race is a colorful tale of ambition and subterfuge, but it is also a love letter to America at the turn of the Twentieth Century. As a seeming peopleās championāa car for the massesātraverses the vast nation, Moskowitz brings to vivid life the diverse populace and landscape that it would soon transform.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martinās Press
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