Welcome to the homepage for The King’s Best Highway, a narrative history of the Boston Post Road (Scribner, June 2010).

During its evolution from Indian trails to modern interstates, the Boston Post Road, a system of overland routes between New York City and Boston, has carried not just travelers and mail but the march of American history itself. Read more...

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"[W]hen Jaffe hits his stride, the result can be illuminating and entertaining."
—Joseph Berger, New York Times

"Eric Jaffe, an agreeable guide, travels this multibranched highway through four centuries to provide an episodic history of roads and their ramifications."
—Bill Kauffman, Wall Street Journal

"Early in the writing of The King's Best Highway, Eric Jaffe tells us, an advisor warned him not to make a book about a road 'boring as hell.' Never has advice been more scrupulously followed: there is not a boring word in the book, which from beginning to end is consistently surprising, entertaining, and amusing."
—Richard Snow, A Measureless Peril

"If you’ve ever lived near or driven on U.S. Route 1 (aka the Boston Post Road), you will be enthralled by Jaffe’s account of American history through the lens of this landmark highway."
—Publisher’s Weekly
2010 Summer Reading Staff Pick

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