The road trip novel was a part of the literary canon long before On the Road. Over at City Lab, Andrew Small interviews history professor Allen Pietrobon, who discusses the need for updating the canon to include women and people of color. “Historically, a woman who had the money to embark on a solo road trip still couldn’t, because she would have been constrained by her social class,” says Pietrobon. “[For people of color,] travel is not the fun, lovely, free-flowing, discover-yourself journey. Even the simple things—getting to stop at a gas station or eat at a restaurant—are much more difficult.”
Image credit: Arfan Uddin
