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Roadside Americans: The Rise and Fall of Hitchhiking in a Changing Nation Hardcover – March 30, 2020

by Jack Reid (Author)

4.2 28 ratings

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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.

Print length

264 pages
Language

English
Publisher

The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date

March 30, 2020
Dimensions

6.12 x 1 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

1469655004
ISBN-13

978-1469655000
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Weaves together anecdote, interviews and historical record to present a nuanced look not just at hitchhiking's ebb and flow but the socioeconomic and political reasons behind the shift in public thinking and behavior."—Arizona Daily Sun

An essential look at history that isn't often examined. . . . A decent, even delightful, read that's perfect for trippers, former hippies, and history buffs. If you're armchair traveling this summer, it gets a thumbs up."—Terri Schlichenmeyer, Bookworm Sez

Reid, an independent cultural scholar, explores hitchhiking in the US. He highlights the heydays of the phenomenon from the 1920s to the 1980s, emphasizing that hitchhiking always maintained various proponents, opponents, and practitioners. . . . Roadside Americans provides a thoughtful and at times intriguing examination of a once storied, if controversial, cultural practice."—Choice

The first comprehensive scholarly history of hitchhiking in the United States, Jack Reid's Roadside Americans is an important work. well written . . . and highly accessible."—H-Environment

Review

Jack Reid's Roadside Americans is a high-octane adventure into hitchhiking culture and automobile devotion. The amount of historical research Reid undertook is astounding. Every page rumbles with fine writing and fresh insights. Highly recommended!"—Douglas Brinkley, author of American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The University of North Carolina Press; Illustrated edition (March 30, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1469655004
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1469655000
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.12 x 1 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #635,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #473 in Road Travel Reference
- #2,035 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences
- #4,510 in Historical Study (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 28 ratings

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Shale

Been going on for a long time

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2021

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Interesting and included the years i hitched

Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2020

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I am one of those people of whom the author speaks. Between 1966-70 when I was in college through my service in the Army in 71-72 until the time I finally moved from the East Coast to the West I hitched up and down the East from Providence to Miami down through New Orleans, Houston, the Southwest. All up the West Coast as far north as Ft Nelson on the Alcan Hwy and everywhere in between. Did the same for a month in Europe. It was a great time. Jack Reid does a decent job of painting with a broad brush what suddenly dawns on me (at 71) is ancient history. My only reservations to his observations as to when I was on the road are;
1. never heard the term "thumb tripping"
2. not that many women, maybe one in ten
3. as I never knew anyone in the service who hitched wearing a uniform, the only reason you were more liable to get a ride was because of your short hair.

As to motivation? There is a great line by the essayist E.B. White

"There is a period near the beginning of every man's life when he has little to cling to except his unmanageable dream, little to support him except good health, and nowhere to go but all over the place."

7 people found this helpful

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ehoward29

Entertaining study of hitchhiking's rise and fall

Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2020

ROADSIDE AMERICANS, by Jack Reid, chronicles the rise and fall of hitchhiking in the Unites States from the Great Depression through the 1980's. A well researched and detailed history, Reid looks at hitchhiking from the rider/driver perspective, to a community perception, from city planning considerations, to national and international ruminations and opinions of hitchhiking across the aforementioned era.
Reid begins describing the origins of hitchhiking: limited automobiles, surviving by working anywhere and limited public transportation. It evolved during World War II, waned during the economically thriving 1950's, then resurged through the 1960's and 1970's from a general uprising of helping out the fellow man coupled with a desire for adventure and connecting with the unknown (people and places). Reid constantly reminds us that until the 1980's, whatever feelings of the inherent danger that comes with hitchhiking rarely outweighed the desire for those who chose to hitchhike. The feeling while reading this book is that no stone in the study of hitchhiking has been left unturned, but there is an large amount of rephrasing the same point and redundancy throughout the book. Some really fascinating facts are frequent and interesting, but the reader could grow weary of the repetition of the same point.
Being born in the 1970's, I missed the age of hitchhiking and only every understood it as an extremely dangerous and kind of pointless venture since most everyone has a car or someone in their family does. ROADSIDE AMERICANS illuminated a lifestyle I was never really versed on until now. Hitchhiking being part of the fabric of our country for a good part of the 20th Century I didn't not fully comprehend until after reading this book.
Thank you to University of North Carolina Press, Jack Reid, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

5 people found this helpful

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John R Bancroft

A history of hitchhiking over a 60 years of shifting economics and changes in social cohesiveness.

Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2021

Reid delivers a thoroughly researched examination of hitchhiking in America through six periods in the 20th century. His work is based heavily on popular accounts published in newspapers and other periodicals. These sources include both opinion pieces and news articles, though the former seem to get more focus as one of the author’s goals is to map shifting popular opinion about hitchhiking.

There is an extensive bibliography of published books and film, though this seemed to get less attention in the text. The author does a good job describing the shifting political, economic and social context over the study period: 1928-1988.

Reid observes that economic conditions are a major factor in the popular acceptance of hitchhiking, both among those seeking rides and those giving them. In the Depression and during Word War II, fewer people had cars, so hitchhiking was more accepted. During periods of prosperity, hitchhiking is less popular – with the exception of the 1960s, when many young people took it up as a lifestyle choice.

Reid also notes that there were differing moral/social views of hitchhiking across all six periods. There always seem to be some people who think it reflects laziness and moral lapse. And there have always been supporters who see in the practice independence, self-reliance and willingness to engage with others. In prosperous times, the risks of hitchhiking take more weight.

These conclusions are intuitive enough, and the author asserts them over and over throughout the book. The conclusions seem obvious and their repetition gets tedious at times, at least for a lay reader. For anyone who grew up hitchhiking in the 1960s, this book will provide little new insight about the activity. It may be more useful for those who have never done put their thumb out for a ride, picked up a hitcher or been on the road during one of its heydays.

The book is greatly enhanced by photographs that appear to come from the public record. More would be better. The type is excruciatingly small. There is a typo on page 1, the worst place for it.

The narrative is strongest when Reid reports first-hand accounts by hitchhikers. And he ends with a tantalizing observation: that climate change and a reviving social consciousness may lead to a shift in public perception and renewed interest in hitchhiking.

2 people found this helpful

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Kristine Fisher

Roadside Americans

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2020

Roadside Americans by Jack Reid is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in early November.

The cultural, interpersonal, and moralistic view of hitchhiking from 1928 to 1988; differing images and opinions on the clean-cut image of someone traveling for work or in uniform versus someone on the fringe of society, who is wild, dangerous and intimidating explored through concepts of mobility in times of economic imbalance, escapism, romanticism, shared trust between driver and hitchhiker across racial and ageist lines, and occasional acts of violence and homicide. It comes off as essentially a lit review thesis, but written about an off-beat topic with flashes of character narratives.

One person found this helpful

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Roadside Americans: The Rise and Fall of Hitchhiking in a Changing Nation Hardcover – March 30, 2020

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