This program is hybrid - it will take place in the Mayer Room at the Howe Library, and can also be attended on Zoom (see registration link below).

New Hampshire Roads Taken or Not is cosponsored with the Hanover Historical Society and made possible by a grant from New Hampshire Humanities. 

Following World War II, New Hampshire embarked on an extensive program of constructing new highways and improving existing roads to accommodate explosive growth in passenger vehicles and the need for better infrastructure to accommodate commercial traffic. Hundreds of millions in federal, state, and local tax dollars would be expended on this initiative over the second half of the 20th century and road construction would become an enduring part of the state's economy. Decisions about when and where highway projects would be undertaken were often driven by political considerations as well as by policy dictated from Washington. Frequently, choices not to build or improve certain roads would generate as much conflict and controversy as would the proposals that would eventually be implemented. Either way, decisions about highways would come to have profound and lasting impacts upon communities and entire regions of the state. In this program, Steve Taylor reviews some of New Hampshire's most significant highway choices in the 20th century, followed by discussion of the economic, social, and cultural changes that followed decisions to build or not to build. 

Steve Taylor is a farmer, writer, and longtime scholar of the state's rural history and culture. He has been a newspaper reporter and editor and was the founding executive director of the New Hampshire Humanities Council. With his three sons, he operates a livestock and maple farm in Meriden Village, and he served 25 years as the state's commissioner of agriculture. Taylor been a presenter of various topics for the New Hampshire Humanities to Go program since 2010.