Some five hundred miles of superhighway run between the Rio Grande and the Red River--present-day Interstate 35. This towering achievement of modern transportation engineering links a string of Texas metropolises and some 7.7 million people, and yet it all evolved from a series of humble little trails.
The I-35 Corridor that runs north-south through Texas connects Dallas and Fort Worth with Austin, San Antonio, and Laredo en route to ancient towns in Mexico. Along its path lie urban centers, technology parks, parking lots, strip malls, apartment complexes, and vast open spaces. In this...

This engrossing popular history makes many intriguing connections between sources of economic wealth and the rise of empires, showing that the forces of globalization have been five centuries in the making.