On the Road 50 Years Later

SIDNEY, NE - JUNE 27: Signs direct drivers June 27, 2007 in Sidney, Nebraska. When rural America was chronicled 50 years ago by Jack Kerouac in his autobiographical novel "On the Road", it was an America full of promise and economic potential, where the majestic openness of the land was entwined with the cult of the automobile. Today, partly due to the loss of the independent family farm, rural America is a state of economic and demographic decline. Despite these changes since Kerouac and his friends sped across the vast American night, much of the visual landscape of the rural United States has remained the same. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)