Dream Road to Pan America: A Century in Pursuit of the World’s Longest Highway offers a captivating account of the Pan-American Highway, the transnational infrastructure project that has captured the public imagination across the Americas for over a century. Although the highway has not been completed—the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama still stands on the way—its multiple sections are critical to global trade and human circulation. Dr. Miller’s book is an outstanding contribution to the growing body of scholarship that examines the Americas as a whole.

As the most visible symbol of Pan-Americanism, the book’s object of study is transnational by definition. Its sources go beyond national and regional divides as well, for Miller examines at length travel accounts of North American explorers heading south and South American adventurers on their way north. As cars became the country’s preferred means of transportation, the idea of connecting the Americas with a single highway was conceived in the United States. To reflect on the role that the automobile industry has played in the U.S. imperial relationship with Latin American countries, Miller argues that “highway imperialism” (63) created an “informal commercial empire” (57) in the Americas. Besides the exploitation of labor and natural resources, the powerful U.S. car industry wanted to use the highway to turn Latin Americans into consumers of U.S.-made automobiles. Throughout seven chapters, Miller provides not only a historical account of the highway’s planning, construction, and use, but also a critical examination of the tensions between its intended goals and the actual implications the highway had in the region. While the highway promised Pan-American friendship, it increased concerns about immigration and hardened borders; while it was built for U.S. tourists traveling south, it is now used by poor global migrants on their way north.

Following the introduction, Chapter two explores the efforts of the U.S. government and the automobile industry to sell “fantasies of hemispheric fraternity” (36) and enlist Latin American countries in their dream highway. Roads and automobiles were portrayed as the foundations of U.S. prosperity and freedom that Latin American countries could purchase. Chapter three focuses on the adventurers and explorers who embarked on trips before there was a road to follow. As soon as the project was announced, dozens attempted to cross the Americas on foot, on horseback, and in cars. Chapter four reflects on the “rivers of gravel” needed to construct modern roads and the “mountains of debt” (127) that their construction implied for Latin American countries. As Miller argues, modern roads are “among the most expensive things humans have created” (136), and debt became the default funding mechanism in Latin America. The chapter also examines the widespread corruption in roadbuilding projects.

Chapter five turns to the only unfinished section of the Pan-American Highway, the Darien Gap, and the social and environmental implications of building a road there. Modern roads have not only displaced Indigenous and peasant communities but also facilitated deforestation and the expansion of cattle ranching, which would be the Darien’s future should the road be completed. Chapter six analyzes the intended users of the highway—U.S. tourists traveling south—and the reasons why they did not follow in their cars the promises of the Pan-American Highway. For Miller, the highway’s main feature was also its main problem—it was “too far” (226). Chapter seven explores the actual users of the highway, particularly during the last few decades: poor global migrants on their way north. The highway did not promote friendship among neighbors but rather heightened concerns about migration and borders. Its last unfinished tract, the Darien Gap, became Panama’s “political equivalent of a border wall” (268). As Miller explains, the unfinished road across the Darien is not the result of an environmental impossibility but rather of Panama’s decisions, built on long-standing anti-immigrant sentiments. Finally, in the epilogue, the book reflects on the unfinished state of the Pan-American Highway after more than a century of construction. For Dr. Miller, the unfinished tract between Colombia and Panama is not a “shameful defeat” but an “unexpected victory” (293) that protects the Darien’s unique ecosystem.