Customer Reviews

Home on the Road: The Motor Home in America

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An un-interesting list of coaches and who built them but not much in the way of detail and very few photographs. What could have been an interesting subject is made dull by page after page of just names and cars, very few photographs, few interior photos and no floor plans. No details on how the earlier units dealt with electricity, toilets, fuel etc. Unless you want a list of people who homebuilt their own motorhome and very little else, this book could be passed over. Surely the Smithsonian has photographs of most of the oldies that would be fascinating but by and large they are not here.

Roger B. White traces the evolution of motorhomes from early home-mades to fancy custom-mades, from the psychedelic 1964 hippie bus to today's luxurious interstate cruisers. As recreation vehicles continue to grow in popularity both as vacation lodgings and to fit the lifestyle of full-timing nomads, a look back at the history of these machines for living is like looking through a family album. Lots of old photos and reference material.

I didn't have a chance to look it over before I purchased this book. Had I, I probably wouldn't have bought this book.

I can appreciate the difficulty in researching and writing a book on a fragmented industry. However, like the prior reviewer, I was very disappointed by the dearth of pictures. I was hoping more for a focus on the machines themselves along with historical narrative. The book is simply rather sketchy. This might be understandable for the early years in the industry, but plenty of material to work with should be available at least from the early Travco era on.

I suppose I'm glad I read the book, as it's the only one I've read on this subject. However, I'd like to see this subject covered in a much more comprehensive manner, with regard to both writing and photography.

Roger White's book gives readers a fascinating view of the range of types, uses, and meanings of motor homes in America. He has done the historical pick and shovel work to uncover the details that make this story come alive in the experiences of real people. Perhaps the best testimony I can offer is to state that when preparing a university course on the automobile in American life, I turned to this book for its revealing vignettes of Americans who chose to take their "home on the road." It has found a place on my list of optional readings for that course and should be read by anyone interested in America's cultures of mobility, inventiveness, or leisure.

a comprehensive compendium of the motor home in America, the experiences and pelasures of owning and traveling aroud the country in your own home-vehicle.

In this meticulously researached volume, Roger B. White introduces us to the many types of mobile travel vehicles which evolved during the 20th century. It is a masteful piece of scholarship. But this research is expressed in a highly readable text which makes the content easily accessible to the reader unfmailiar with this subject matter. Although I wished that there had been more illlustrations in the book, the ones the author has chosen to include, mostly unseen by the public, succicntly depict the various types of "homes on the road" he is discussing. Nobody interested in the ehtos of the roadside as it evolved in the 20th cnetury should miss reading and owning this terrific volume.