ABSTRACT
The fantasy of driving along one of the interstate American highways, with their spectacular vistas and monumental landscapes, did not last long. The most famous Route 66, was established in 1927, but was mostly replaced by multi-lane highways in the 1950s and 1960s. The new interstate highways now offer little by way of scenery. Route 66 retains its mystique as authentic and romantic and is the setting for many films and novels focussing on the road trip. The death of the myth of agrarianism is vividly depicted in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939), where the Joad family realise that they are now essentially working for subsistence wages, with little hope of ever owning their own piece of land again. According to Dennis Hopper in the documentary Shaking the Cage (1999), about the making of the film Easy Rider, the term easy rider refers to a man who lives off a whore.
