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Title details for Roadside Americans by Jack Reid - Available

Roadside Americans

The Rise and Fall of Hitchhiking in a Changing Nation

by Jack Reid
Johnny Heller
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
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 sync 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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 30, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781705212790
      • File size: 222771 KB
      • Duration: 07:44:06

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Golden Voice narrator Johnny Heller brings this audiobook about hitchhiking to life. He narrates engagingly with a sureness of tone and a plainspoken style that suits the many interesting stories, personal histories, and critiques of hitching rides. The author includes anecdotes of famous people: Ronald Reagan hitched to Iowa for college, Steve Jobs thumbed his way across Europe, Bob Dylan grabbed rides on his way from Minnesota to New York City, and more. The audiobook's purpose is to show how hitchhiking mirrors the cultural trajectory of the country from the early days of clean-cut roadside travelers in the 1920s to the hip counterculture hitchhikers of the late 1960s to the decline in hitchhiking in the 1980s, when thumbing rides fell out of favor as a form of adventure travel. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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