In Americans on the Road, Warren James Belasco uses travel magazines, trade journals, and diaries to "look at what Americans actually did with their cars rather than try to judge what cars did to Americans." Belasco begins with the earliest days of automobile travel in America--when travelers camped wherever they stopped along the roadside, "gypsying" in their cars or in tents--and moves on to chart the growth in the 1920s of free municipal campsites. As the cost of building and maintaining these campsites steadily rose, towns began requiring patrons to pay a small fee. The steady stream of paying customers prompted entrepreneurs to build inexpensive restaurants and lodgings--and, Belasco concludes, "the motel industry was born."
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Editorial Reviews
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"A marvelously documented study of the evolution of American touring habits and of the infrastructure that arose to support them." -- New York Times
"Beyond being a thoroughly researched and insightful account of the origins of the motel industry, Americans on the Road is a major contribution to our understanding of basic processes of change in twentieth-century American civilization. This first-class analysis of a facet of the American automobile revolution is brilliantly conceived, erudite, and entertaining. It is the most important book on American tourism to appear since Earl Pomeroy's 1957 In Search of the Golden West and deserves to be read by anyone interested in American social and/or cultural history." -- James J. Flink, Journal of American History
"Indispensable reading for anyone with an interest in the subject." -- American Institute of Architects Journal
Book Description
From the early days of "gypsying"in roadside camps to the modern motel industry.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Autocamping began as a vacation alternative for the relatively comfortable middle classes. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
motor gypsies, transcontinental game, autocamping trip, motor camper, municipal autocamp, touring literature, motor camping, municipal camps, tourist camps, public camps, pay camp, camp pioneers, roadside camp, affluent tourists, motel industry, camp owners, free camps, roadside business, private camps, cabin owners, cabin camps, hotel men, hotel life, many campers, better camps Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Early Motels, Library of Congress, New York, Van de Water, Emily Post, New England, Los Angeles, Frank Brimmer, Melville Ferguson, National Archives, Howard Johnson, Beatrice Massey, Clara Keyton, Henry Ford, Holiday Inn, San Francisco, American Hotel Association, Bureau of Public Roads, Dallas Lore Sharp, Elon Jessup, Theodore Dreiser, West Coast, Greenwich Village, Harry Shumway, James Muirhead New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Autocamping began as a vacation alternative for the relatively comfortable middle classes. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
motor gypsies, transcontinental game, autocamping trip, motor camper, municipal autocamp, touring literature, motor camping, municipal camps, tourist camps, public camps, pay camp, camp pioneers, roadside camp, affluent tourists, motel industry, camp owners, free camps, roadside business, private camps, cabin owners, cabin camps, hotel men, hotel life, many campers, better camps Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Early Motels, Library of Congress, New York, Van de Water, Emily Post, New England, Los Angeles, Frank Brimmer, Melville Ferguson, National Archives, Howard Johnson, Beatrice Massey, Clara Keyton, Henry Ford, Holiday Inn, San Francisco, American Hotel Association, Bureau of Public Roads, Dallas Lore Sharp, Elon Jessup, Theodore Dreiser, West Coast, Greenwich Village, Harry Shumway, James Muirhead New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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This book cites 53
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36
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- The Car Culture by James J. Flink on 5 pages
- By Motor to the Golden Gate by Emily Post on 5 pages
- A Hoosier Holiday by Theodore Dreiser on 4 pages
- Henry Ford and Grass-Roots America by Reynold M. Wik in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Free Air by Sinclair Lewis on page 44, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 53 books this book cites
- The Motel in America (The Road and American Culture) by Professor John A. Jakle in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Oxford History of the American West by Clyde A. Milner II on page 466, and page 630
- Main Street to Miracle Mile: American Roadside Architecture by Chester Liebs in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Down and Out, on the Road: The Homeless in American History by Kenneth L. Kusmer in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Consumers in the Country: Technology and Social Change in Rural America (Revisiting Rural America) by Ronald R. Kline in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
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