“Miracle Road: The Story of Research Triangle Park” tells the story of North Carolina’s journey from “one of the poorest states in the nation (to) an economic powerhouse,” as described by Duke University Press. Written by father-son duo Mark and Allen Paul, the newest history of the Triangle is set to release on Oct. 6, 2026.
Mark, a Cary native, is the cofounder of Morningstar Law Group, former chair of the Greater Triangle Regional Council, and instructor on land use law at North Carolina State University and North Carolina Central University. His son, Allen, was a journalist, speechwriter, and author whose previous books include “Katyn: Stalin’s Massacre and the Triumph of Truth” and “College Sports on the Brink of Disaster.”
The book has received several endorsements from leaders in education, government, and business across the state. Recently, the former Rep. Dr. David Price — who serves on the State Board of Community Colleges and is professor emeritus of political science and public policy at Duke University — offered his praise for the book.
“Mack and Allen Paul have given us an authoritative account of the rise of RTP from bold but uncertain beginnings, to the validation provided by IBM and federal environmental labs, to decades of growth and current efforts at reinvention,” said Price. “Miracle Road is an inspiring and instructive story of cooperative business, educational, and political leadership.”
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The book’s content spans nearly 75 years of history, starting in the mid-20th century. The authors organize their telling of the Triangle into four distinct phases: the uncertain time before IBM decided to locate its largest facility in the Park, the rise of several “iconic companies,” the setbacks that came during the dot-com era and how RTP adjusted, and the current “transformation into a mixed-use innovation hub” that has drawn the largest names in tech and science to North Carolina, according to a press release from Duke University Press.
“Miracle Road tells the remarkable story of Research Triangle Park’s ascendancy through the personal contributions, inventions, and discoveries of many,” said Chairman of York Properties Smedes York, the former Raleigh mayor and former chair of Research Triangle Foundation. “The bold idea for a research park was in doubt in the early 1960s when I was at NC State. But IBM’s selection of RTP in 1965 validated RTP and laid the foundation for this extraordinary journey.”
The authors conducted over 160 interviews over four years, attempting to understand what RTP got right, where it may have fallen short, whose stories shaped the RTP, and what growth might be possible in the future.
Told as a narrative nonfiction, the Pauls remind readers of the countless human lives that played a part in making the Triangle what it is today. They elevate the stories of many North Carolinians, like the Black community leaders in Wake County who helped North Carolina land the IBM facility over Virginia by advocating for school desegregation and explaining how it would appeal to tech companies.
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The book features many more stories of how individual North Carolinians have contributed to its scientific and technological prowess.
It tells the stories of people like UNC scientist Jude Samulski working on developing gene therapy for 20 years, like Monroe Wall and Mansukh Wani discovering Taxol in the bark of a Pacific yew tree that has since treated more than 1 million cancer patients worldwide, and like a UNC oncologist who got the idea for a cancer drug from a Battlestar Galactica episode on a long plane flight that later became a $105 million IPO.
Through the stories of “businessmen who mortgaged their reputations, the governors who recruited companies across continents, the scientists whose discoveries changed the world, and the community leaders whose decisions made it all possible,” Miracle Road presents the history of the Research Triangle Park as it is, according to the press release.
“Discover how North Carolina defied the odds, transforming from ‘brain-drain’ state to global technology titan,” said Wake Technical Community College Provost Timothy Humphrey. “Read firsthand accounts of the Triangle’s evolution, where elite academic assets, radical collaborative spirit, and ambition for excellence built the foundation for decades of success. A must-read!”
You can pre-order the book here.
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