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Scene from "Smokey and the Bandit" of Burt Reynolds talking on a CB radio.

"A Long Way to Go and a Short Time to Get There"

In the 1970s, trucker films like "Smokey and the Bandit" celebrated rebellious, working-class solidarity and freedom, with complex politics at play.

Punjabi Convoy

A history of trucking in America, told through the music that has kept truckers company on the lonely road.
Semi on a mountain highway.

The Populist Power of the American Trucker

How did truckers nudge the American economy toward deregulation?
Picture of a truck stop.

Every Which Way but Regulated: The “Free Market” Trucking Industry

No longer home to the open-road outlaws and concrete cowboys of the ’70s, becoming a trucker is now the equivalent of operating a sweatshop on wheels thanks to deregulation.
Trucks and cars moving on the highway

Keep on Truckin’

The road to right-wing deregulation began on our nation's highways.
Frozen truck on icy road

The Frozen Trucker and the Fugitive Slave

On the TransAm Trucking case, legal reasoning, and the Fugitive Slave Act.

When Betty Ford Had Her Ears On

A strong woman using a new tool to talk to people who were otherwise overlooked played as a joke for some. But was it effective?

The North Carolina Trucker Who Brought the World to America in a Box

How Malcolm McClean's shipping containers conquered the global economy by land and sea.
George HW Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon at the Reagan Library opening.
partner

Jimmy Carter Was a Successful (Conservative) President

Common conceptions of Carter are all wrong because they don’t acknowledge a crucial reality: he was a conservative.
Volunteers at Big Creek Missions in Leslie County, Kentucky

Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood

I’ve been going back to eastern Kentucky for over a decade. Since 2016, something there has changed.
Black and white photo of people taking fish out of a train car.

Remembering When Fish Rode the Rails

For decades, salmon, catfish, and trout traveled in America's fleet of "Fish Cars."
Illustrated cargo ship surrounded by a train loop.

How America’s Supply Chains Got Railroaded

Rail deregulation led to consolidation, price-gouging, and a variant of just-in-time unloading that left no slack in the system.
Black and white photo of the 1940 Chevrolet half-ton.

The Rugged History of the Pickup Truck

At first, it was all about hauling things we needed. Then the vehicle itself became the thing we wanted.

The People, It Depends

What's the matter with left-populism? A review of Thomas Frank's "The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism."
Freight train traveling through grasslands.

Forty Years After Surface Freight Deregulation

The regulatory reforms of the railroad and trucking industries are models for evidence-based, bipartisan policymaking.
Jimmy Carter speaking.

What Happens When a President Really Listens?

Jonathan Alter on Jimmy Carter ditching politics for truth.

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