Robert Dale Owen was the son of the founder of the ‘utopian’ community of New Harmony, IN, and served in the U.S. House of Representatives twice. He explained in the Preface that he had been elected one of the Directors of a company formed to build a 15-mile road from New Harmony to the Ohio River. However, the Directors found that they knew nothing of road-building, so Owen drew upon his circle of acquaintances in Washington, D.C. to research the subject. Since he saw a great need in Indiana for better roads, he put his newly-acquired expertise in this book to persuade other communities of the advantages of plank roads, and so it could serve as a practical guide for funding and building them.