Trucking Country: The Road to America's Wal-Mart Economy [Kindle Edition]

Shane Hamilton (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This detailed, closely argued book chronicles the U.S. trucking industry's history, particularly its role in rolling back New Deal policies and regulations, "paving the way for the low-wage, low-price capitalism that would define the final decades of the twentieth-century political economy." Associate history professor Hamilton (Univ. of Georgia) provides a clear if dry tour of 20th century regulation issues case by case, documenting the rise of unions, automated agribusiness, the marginalizing of independent operators and the increased demand for "vigorously anti-New Deal" policies for farm country. Though at times repetitive, the decentralized, grassroots nature of the movement keeps things lively, and Hamilton is a knowledgeable guide to everything from beef trusts to the National Farmers Organization to the 1979 strike that opens the book, in which 75,000 truckers tried to shut down the nation's highway system. Economy and market buffs looking for a different perspective on America's 20th century economic evolution will find this intriguing and informative.
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Review

This detailed, closely argued book chronicles the U.S. trucking industry's history, particularly its role in rolling back New Deal policies and regulations. Hamilton is a knowledgeable guide to everything from beef trusts to the National Farmers Organization to the 1979 strike that opens the book, in which 75,000 truckers tried to shut down the nation's highway system. Economy and market buffs looking for a different perspective on America's 20th century economic evolution will find this intriguing and informative. -- Publishers Weekly



With the US again engaged in a debate over the merits of regulation versus the free market, the book's academic research touches on some timely historical issues. It is also a fascinating account of the political battles over the diesel engine and the refrigerated truck, which had emerged as the new technology of the 1920s and 1930s and a threat to the dominance of the railroad distribution system for beef and milk by a few large meat packing companies and local dairies. -- Jonathan Birchall, Financial Times



Independent trucking is for Hamilton what Kansas was for Frank--the locus that shows a part of what has gone wrong with American politics. -- David Kusnet, Bookforum



Trucking Country intervenes in [the] crowded debate over the demise of New Deal liberalism from a genuinely original vantage point: the political culture of independent long-haul truckers and the political economy shaped by the agribusiness corporations that they served. -- Matthew Lassiter, Democracy



Trucking Country offers a finely crafted mix of cultural identity, regional tradition, economic history, legislative politics, political argument and policy transformation. Shane Hamilton uses the history and contemporary development of the trucking industry in the U.S. to reveal the social, economic and political dynamics that were instrumental in shifting the industry away from the heavy regulation of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) towards deregulation, fragmentation, and free-market competition. -- Michael Foley, Times Higher Education



If you want to know what really drives the US economy, then this thoroughly researched and well-written book is for you--and that's a big 10-4, Rubber Duck. -- Joe Cushnan, The Tribune



A brilliant read. -- Fleet Transportation Magazine



[B]y drawing together structural, institutional, economic, and cultural analyses, Hamilton has offered a dense, textured, and complex account of his subject. Trucking Country is essential to any understanding of the decline of the New Deal and the rise of economic conservatism at the end of the twentieth century. -- Joseph E. Lowndes, Perspectives on Politics



This is a convincing and useful book. -- Peter J. Hugill, Journal of American History



[A] fascinating study of the hauling business. . . . From the 1930s through the end of the Carter administration, Hamilton's history is thoughtful, detailed, and informative. -- Jesse Walker, Reason



[U]ndeniably a major achievement. Shane Hamilton has written a brilliant book that will be required reading for anyone interested ill understanding the conservative groundswell of the postwar era. -- Jordan Kleiman, Technology and Culture



Trucking Country is imaginative, thought-provoking, and persuasive. . . . [N]o scholarly work is more essential for understanding the transformation of Northwest Arkansas. -- Michael Pierce, Arkansas Historical Quarterly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 3980 KB
• Print Length: 322 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0691135827
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (September 15, 2008)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• ASIN: B001O9BVBS
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #274,036 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, just needed to not end so abruptly, August 23, 2009

By 

Zachary A. Slaton (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trucking Country: The Road to America's Wal-Mart Economy (Kindle Edition)

If anyone wants a better understanding of hour their "stuff" (food, electronics, furniture, etc.) gets from point A to B so fast and cheap today, they need to read this book. It is an outstanding history, from the Depression through the 1980's, of how products were moved in this country and the political and commercial forces who helped set the rules for said movement. It explains how the Teamsters, along with New Deal politicians, set up a framework of regulated trucking routes that restricted competition and kept transport prices high. That framework was steadily eroded through an exemption in the regulation that allowed farmers to use unregulated trucks to bring their product to market. The ensuing four-and-a-half decades were spent battling over what the meaning of the words "farm products" meant in an economy increasingly dominated by consumers want for cheap products and farmers want for maximum profit in their pockets (and not truckers). Pulling on a voluminous list of citations, the author turns what could be a dry topic into one of fascinating statistics, first person accounts, and cultural references that make one feel like they are riding shotgun with a driver trying to eek out a living as "the last American cowboy".

The only reason that this book didn't receive 5 stars from me was it's abrupt ending. Once through President Carter's de-regulation era, the author attempts to sum up the last 30 years of trucking in several concluding pages. Perhaps there weren't as many primary sources as there were for earlier decades, or maybe the point of the book was to stop with Carter's actions. Whatever the reason, it seemed a bit abrupt given the volume and depth of the previous chapters. It's the one blemish in an otherwise outstanding documentary on the nearly 80 years of trucking since the Great Depression.

5.0 out of 5 stars America through a political, social, and cultural history of trucking, August 14, 2009

By 

ROROTOKO (rorotoko dot com) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trucking Country: The Road to America's Wal-Mart Economy (Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America) (Hardcover)

"Trucking Country" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Hamilton's book interview ran here as cover feature on May 1, 2009.