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Roadside Americans : the rise and fall of hitchhiking in a changing nation / Jack Reid.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2020]Description: 251 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781469655000
  • 1469655004
Subject(s):
Contents:
Brother, can you spare a ride? Hitchhiking in the Great Depression, 1928-1940 -- It's easy for a soldier boy to catch rides : hitchhiking during World War II, 1941-1947 -- The dangerous stranger : hitchhiking in the age of affluence, 1948-1959 -- An unfiltered dose of the human condition : hitchhiking and the pursuit of authenticity, 1960-1967 -- Riders on the storm : countercultural hitchhiking and conservative resistance, 1968-1975 -- Goin' down the road feelin' bad : the decline of hitchhiking, 1976-1988.
Summary: "Between the Great Depression and the mid-1970s, hitchhikers were a common sight for motorists, as American service members, students, and adventurers sought out the romance of the road in droves. Beats, hippies, feminists, and civil rights and antiwar activists saw "thumb tripping" as a vehicle for liberation, living out the counterculture's rejection of traditional values. Yet, by the time Ronald Reagan, a former hitchhiker himself, was in the White House, the youthful faces on the road chasing the ghost of Jack Kerouac were largely gone--along with sympathetic portrayals of the practice in state legislatures and the media"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 917.3049 R356 Available 33111009631470
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Between the Great Depression and the mid-1970s, hitchhikers were a common sight for motorists, as American service members, students, and adventurers sought out the romance of the road in droves. Beats, hippies, feminists, and civil rights and antiwar activists saw "thumb tripping" as a vehicle for liberation, living out the counterculture's rejection of traditional values. Yet by the time Ronald Reagan, a former hitchhiker himself, was in the White House, the youthful faces on the road chasing the ghost of Jack Kerouac were largely gone--along with sympathetic portrayals of the practice in state legislatures and the media.



In Roadside Americans , Jack Reid traces the rise and fall of hitchhiking, offering vivid accounts of life on the road and how the act of soliciting rides from strangers, and the attitude toward hitchhikers in American society, evolved over time in synch with broader economic, political, and cultural shifts. In doing so, Reid offers insight into significant changes in the United States amid the decline of liberalism and the rise of the Reagan Era.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Brother, can you spare a ride? Hitchhiking in the Great Depression, 1928-1940 -- It's easy for a soldier boy to catch rides : hitchhiking during World War II, 1941-1947 -- The dangerous stranger : hitchhiking in the age of affluence, 1948-1959 -- An unfiltered dose of the human condition : hitchhiking and the pursuit of authenticity, 1960-1967 -- Riders on the storm : countercultural hitchhiking and conservative resistance, 1968-1975 -- Goin' down the road feelin' bad : the decline of hitchhiking, 1976-1988.

"Between the Great Depression and the mid-1970s, hitchhikers were a common sight for motorists, as American service members, students, and adventurers sought out the romance of the road in droves. Beats, hippies, feminists, and civil rights and antiwar activists saw "thumb tripping" as a vehicle for liberation, living out the counterculture's rejection of traditional values. Yet, by the time Ronald Reagan, a former hitchhiker himself, was in the White House, the youthful faces on the road chasing the ghost of Jack Kerouac were largely gone--along with sympathetic portrayals of the practice in state legislatures and the media"-- Provided by publisher.

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