Lost in America

Residents and travelers destined for the new freeways failed perceptions of a sense of place in America had Max Lerner, one of America's most influential journalists, label the sense of place a “problem” in America,

In his book published America as a Civilization, he wrote of the ill-defined communities in America, describing the nation’s citizenry as fragmented and unresolved. As he wrote the book, though, the architecture and popular culture of the country, began to take on a form of there own, an upgraded bigger and better American version. Nowhere can this be seen better than in the signage that was built in cities and towns and along highways across the nation.

During the twentieth century, Lerner saw America to be a democracy of informality, a place of bigness, and technological prowess. His vision became a truism with respect to the signage being built as well.