THE HARDEST, LONGEST RACE

An exacting auto race that reshaped the American landscape.

The Ocean-to-Ocean Race for the Guggenheim Cup, in 1909, was a grueling, 4,100-mile route from New York City to Seattle over some of the most brutal terrain imaginable, with wagon trails often substituting for roads. Two Ford Model Ts (not yet the standard bearer for the nascent automotive industry), a Shawmut, Acme, and Itala vied not only for bragging rights but for their financial futures. Some 250 American automakers shunned the race, fearing a high-profile failure in an age when “racing glory and sales growth…often went hand in hand.” But media fascination was undiminished. Moskowitz, a former Boston Globe reporter, revs up expectation and excitement from the starting gun, his account set against a backdrop America’s new love affair with the car and a never-before-attempted dash across a largely untamed continent. The book is a sweeping, suspenseful companion piece to Brian Appleyard’s automotive history The Car (2022), through Moskowitz’s is strictly a story of American ingenuity and invention. He details the varied technical advances, the strengths and weaknesses of each car, and the more notable auto companies and their entrepreneurs, as well as all the owners, drivers, designers, mechanics, guides, backers, and boosters who made it all work—not to mention a gallery of “peripheral” figures for local color. There are also striking histories and descriptions of the cities, towns, and landscapes along the route, all presented in a sprightly style, with the race and period America coming alive. Moskowitz, who reconstructed the action (and some competitive skullduggery) primarily from roughly 200 newspapers, archives, and varied accounts, takes us along for the ride with a propulsive sense of immediacy.

An inflection point for the automobile and a nation is vividly realized.