Research Triangle Park in North Carolina (RTP) emerged under the unique circumstances of a poor Southern state that needed to find a way to offset the declining industries of tobacco, furniture, and textiles in the 1950s. Through the sustained commitment of nearby universities, business leaders, and local and state officials, state leaders established the largest science and research park in the United States in an area that was nothing but “possums and pines.”

Miracle Road tells this story through the eyes of those at the center of it, like the local black leaders who convinced white officials to desegregate public schools with the justification that it would make the area more appealing to tech companies, or how a chance meeting between the governor and a Danish executive led to North Carolina becoming an epicenter for weight loss drugmakers decades later. Allen Paul and Mack Paul organize the story around major periods in RTP’s growth, showing how RTP came to define the region and the state by the 1990s as well as the major setbacks it encountered in the early 2000s. Breaking down the strategies that led to RTP’s success, like creating new institutions in targeted tech areas to spur activity and factoring quality of life into the regional planning of the area, Miracle Road demonstrates how the story of Research Triangle Park is a fascinating and important case study of urban development in the twenty-first century.

Mack Paul recently took time to answer seven questions from Porchlight about the book and the process of writing it with his father—who passed away peacefully, surrounded by family on May 25, 2026—and point us to some other books to continue your reading once you've finished Miracle Road.

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Porchlight Book Company: Writing a book is no small undertaking. What compelled you to write this one?

Mack Paul: RTP has long held a special place for me. I left the area as a child. While interviewing at law firms in major cities in the early 1990s, I contemplated a return. RTP factored heavily in my decision to settle in Raleigh. I had only the vaguest notions of what my life would be like there, but I saw the Triangle as dynamic, tech-centric, affordable and bucolic. My work as a land use attorney benefited significantly from the growth generated by RTP, and I participated in numerous planning efforts and other
initiatives to ensure the region met the needs of the workers in RTP. Many of us who arrived prior to 2000, saw RTP as the golden goose—something to protect and nurture. It was several members of this generation who approached my dad, a writer, with the assignment—produce a comprehensive book on RTP that could reach a broad audience by humanizing the story of the Park’s creation, growth and future. It didn’t take much for my dad to convince me to collaborate with him. We have very different approaches to writing but, for a project like this, very complementary. And how many chances do you get to write a book with your father? For me, it was just one chance, and I’m glad I took it.

PBC: Writing (and reading) always prompts as many new questions as it offers answers to the ones you came to it with. What is one unanswered question you encountered as you wrote the book that you are most interested in answering now?

MP: The book details the interrelationship among state and local government, universities, and business to produce an ecosystem conducive to research and development (R&D). The RTP strategy prioritized luring companies to North Carolina to undertake R&D, believing that would spur new industries and create jobs. In this sense, the RTP strategy mirrored previous efforts to bring textile and furniture companies to North Carolina. Of course, textiles and furniture eventually declined. I am curious whether R&D faces a similar fate. R&D is not limited to a particular industry, although it’s certainly essential to the tech industry. We’ve seen ups and downs in activity around R&D over the years. Will it eventually decline, or is there something about R&D that insulates it from the same forces that impact industries based on production. The book
discusses the distinction between hard tech and soft tech—manufacturing versus creative content. My sense is that the answer is bound up in that distinction, but we did not flesh it out in this book.

PBC: If there is only one thing a reader takes away from reading this book, what would you hope it to be

Collaborations are essential to success—a beautiful office park is not. The book shows that RTP is much more than a physical place. Without the collaborations among business, government, and universities, all working to improve the economic conditions of a poor state, the Park would not exist today. By defining RTP as a strategy, the book brings attention to the different participants who engaged with RTP, helped overcome challenges, and expanded its reach in new ways. This dynamic process required sacrifice, creativity, vision, and patience. This framing also helps to explain why so many science and research parks created since the 1960s have failed.

PBC: One of the great things about books is that they tend to lead readers to other books. What book[s] related to this topic would you recommend people read after (or perhaps even before) reading your book?

Here are some of the books on economic development and the tech industry that provide context for understanding RTP as one of a number of tech centers that emerged after World War II. In Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128, Annalee Saxenian argued that the decentralized nature of industry and society out West allowed Silicon Valley to gain dominance over Boston. I enjoyed the histories of both places. By covering a long time horizon, Saxenian helps the reader track the dynamism of tech and how quickly and why fortunes can change.

In the process of writing the book, two books I read 20 years ago came back to fascinate me again: The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida and The New Geography by Joel Kotkin. There was no love lost between these two authors. Florida believed the future resided in large, dense cities. Kotkin held firm that tech workers preferred suburbia and office parks like RTP. These books were written during the glory days of technology when the internet promised to change human existence—and unlike with AI, the public generally embraced it. There was palpable excitement about what that future might look like. The public embraced thinkers who could see through the hype and show us what the world would look like. Writers like Florida and Kotkin had a lot riding on their predictions. 20 years later, we can see that both offered keen insights into how jobs shaped human preferences.

PBC: What is your favorite book?

Any book written by the Harvard biologist, E.O. Wilson—a great writer and even better thinker. I’m so sorry we lost him in 2021. I find the subject of evolutionary biology fascinating because it helps us understand human behavior as we would any other species. That scientific methodology removes some of the biases we bring to any debate about human decision-making. It also helps us appreciate what makes humans special, as we are one of the few social species. Wilson’s The Social Conquest of Earth has particular appeal for me. I recognize his theory of group selection versus kin selection has drawn vociferous debate
among biologists. Regardless, I find great solace in the idea that those societies that rely on mutual cooperation are better adapted to withstand the vicissitudes of environmental change, new economic forces, or hostile enemies. I hold onto Wilson’s ideas as an antidote during times of polarization and discord. Also, his ideas helped me arrive at the thesis of Miracle Road—that collaboration can transform the fortunes of even the poorest and most hopeless people.

PBC: What are you reading now?

My dad always gave me a hard time whenever he asked me what I was reading. Invariably, it would be nonfiction, which he deemed “wonkish.” He preferred literature. I am drawn to a book for a particular purpose. Currently, I’m reading Capitalism: A Global History by Sven Beckert. Beckert broadens the lens on capitalism from an idea that emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries to one that emerged many centuries earlier and marked a critical turning point in human history. Beckert captures a vast array of societies in his narrative. We can see capitalism as far more than an economic system. It existed alongside many different political and social systems and was profoundly affected by them and, in return, also profoundly affected them. Why did capitalism persist? How did it evolve? What does it say about human nature and our future? These are some of the questions that drew me to this book.

PBC: Do you have any future projects in the works that we can look forward to?

My father was the writer in the family. He never lacked for projects. It was a huge blow to lose him prior to the publication of this book. We discussed the book every day. He wanted to start on another project, focusing on the swing voter in North Carolina. That kept him going until his final week.

I do have my own projects in the works. For me, writing is an extension of my advocacy and other activities. It offers one more way to effect change by shaping the way people understand a problem and how to address it. During the pandemic, I began writing a book on voting systems and how they impact the ability of policymakers to collaborate on legislation. It concludes that several factors have conspired to make America’s winner-take-all voting system unsustainable. I put the book aside to complete Miracle Road and plan to come back to it.

Another related book project focuses on the American system of land use and zoning. We imported our system of zoning from Germany in the early 20th century. However, we adopted a uniquely American way of legislating changes to zoning—in effect, a voting system that produces wildly unfair and unjust outcomes. We can see it in today’s housing crisis and in the patterns of exclusion of certain groups from economic opportunity. I want to turn to this after finishing the book on electoral systems.

Can you see a pattern here? Maybe I need to switch to fiction.

About the Authors

Mack Paul cofounded Morningstar Law Group, where he is a partner. He teaches land use law at North Carolina State University and North Carolina Central University. Mack served as chair of the Greater Triangle Regional Council and has written extensively about the development of the Triangle Region.

Allen Paul (1939–2026) was the author of From Honey with Love: My Life as a Second-Chance Dog, Katyn: Stalin’s Massacre and the Triumph of Truth, and coauthor of College Sports on the Brink of Disaster: The Rise of Pay-for-Play and the Fall of the Scholar-Athlete.