Customer Reviews

The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings

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This is a book about American Urban Legends and their meanings. The book has two aspects to it. Firstly, it describes many common urban legends, and tries to trace the origin and evolution of the stories.

Secondly, it attempts to provide an analysis or the reason for such legends appearing. The book has been organized under several broad categories for the purpose of analysis: CLASSIC AUTOMOBILE LEGENDS, TEENAGE HORRORS, DREADFUL CONTAMINATIONS, FEAR OF DEATH, NUDITY, and BUSINESS RIPOFFS.

I enjoyed many of the urban tales. It brought back memories of my childhood when I was hearing or telling the same stories. There were also some stories that were new to me, and I look forward to telling them to my friends! The author also did a good job discussing the origin and history of each of these urban myths.

Overall I enjoyed the book and would recommend to anyone who likes these types of tales.

Brunvand was so ahead of his time. This book was originally published before the term URBAN LEGEND was a film, a sequel and a catch phrase. In these days of email boxes crammed to the brim with fake virus alerts, cookie recipes, pyramid schemes, and hundreds of forwards you cannot open, we forget the origin of "urban legends." Told and retold from generation to the next, Brunvand tells us the history of these "sworn to be true' stories such as "The Hook" and "The Boyfriend's Death" - how the stories got started and how they evolved into permanent teenage and campfire lore. Sure you can look 'em up on the Internet now, but you will never get the rich and wild history of tales told by the sister of an old boyfriend who had a cousin who SWORE it happened to her unless you read this book, and the many that Brunvand followed it up with.

This book is excellent. By reading it you get a good scope on what urban legends are and how they fulfil their role in communication in society. I have done some research in Folklore and Urban Legends in the Netherlands, and Brunvand's work has had a major influence on the scope of my thesis. He knows what he is talking about. This book gives a good insight in storytelling, culture and American Society. A must for researchers in cultural studies, and probably a good book for those who want to learn more about the American society. It is fun to read, clearly written and Brunvand has a nice style of writing. I think many people would like this book, whether they are doing research, are on holiday, on the train or whatever. It's a book of all times, and so are the stories...

This author is a rare find in literature of this kind: a genuine, professional folklorist who carefully documents his subject and traces its beginnings. Brumvand is the first author to consult on urban folklore. This book is a keeper, one to read and re-read.

A fabulous introduction into the propagation of urban legend. We already know the stories - the hook or alligators in New York's sewers. The book is appropriate for the general audience, but has an academic twist. Can't wait to read the rest of the series!

Thanks to the work of Jan Brunvand, the term "urban legend" has become part of the English language lexicon. This is the first book that Brunvand wrote on urban legends, and it contains the classics. You can find out the scoop on rats in KFC, spiders in bananas, the hookman, and (of course) the vanishing hitchhiker. The work shows how legends are oftentimes accepted without critique for being true, and the analysis provides interesting ways for considering why these stories catch on amongst tellers and listeners.

"The Vanishing Hitchhiker," folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand's first book on urban legends, provides a thorough introduction to the definition, interpretation, and themes of urban folkore. About three dozen classic "friend of a friend" tales are covered in depth; each is presented through several examples, accompanied by a detailed analysis, and listed in a Notes section highlighting folklore journal articles about it. All in all, an excellent introduction for those who care to learn more about the field of urban folklore rather than just read collections of urban legends

In 1981, when this book was first published, it was probably a decent collection of the origins of certain urban legends.

For those who do not know what urban legends are, they're just offbeat stories which get told and re-told, in first person as if the teller was either an actual participant in these rather dubious events, or as if s/he KNEW the person to which such an incident happened and can attest to the story's validity; however, urban legends are for the most part, untrue, at least as they are typically recounted by their tellers.

Brunvand spent a lot of time researching the supposed sources of the most popular of these anecdotes, ultimately giving a thumbs-down as to the veracity of most of them. The author seems much more convinced than I am about his success in tracking down the actual origins of these popular tales and ascertaining the truth of each. I know that at least in one instance where I heard one of these stories long before the time at which he cites the first telling... that of "The Waldorf Cake Story".

Still, Brunvand was likely the first person to put such a Herculean effort into documenting and assembling these intriguing sagas and for that I yield him full credit. This is certainly a better book than a subsequent knock-off: The 500 Best Urban Legends Ever!. You can forget about this thrown-together mess - it's pretty bad.

But now we have Snopes.com which has become the all-out authority on urban legends. If you've never visited that website, do so and you'll see what I mean.

Brunvand includes the following popular urban legends in his book: "The Baby in the Oven Story," "The Cucumber in the Disco Pants Story," "The Rodent in the Soft Drink Bottle Story," and the "Car that Runs on Water Story". Oh yeah! And the one about Harley-Davidson Motorcycles selling for 25 bucks apiece but you had to buy 50 of them, (I heard it as surplus Army Jeeps for 50 bucks and you had to buy 50, uncrate your individual jeep, and assemble it -- that was around 1966. A later one I heard was the same deal on airboats.)

If you are totally unapprised of urban legends I can definitely recommend Brunvand's book -- it's well-written and interesting. But it's probably just easier (and more up-to-date) to simply go to Snopes.

Jan Harold Brunvand collects some of the most well-known urban legends in the US, traces them to their possible origins, and explores their importance to society as reinforcers of conventional morality. I remember seeing the author interviewed on the David Letterman Show back when the book was first published in the early 80s. It took me a long time to get around to reading it, but the topic is timeless and Brunvand's analysis has not aged at all. Today, we have websites such as Snopes to help us separate fact from legend, but this book was a groundbreaking work that helped popularize the academic study of contemporary folklore. Intended for use in college courses, it may seem a bit dry at times and even a little repetitious, but the inherent fascination of the topic shines through.

'The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings'was, in a way, a huge disappointment and a huge gain. The book is a folkloric study of urban legends and their historical significance. The book features a small, trimmed version of anthologies. It is a very hateful book, but somehow I adore the nostalgia in it.

If you like this book, I suggest these items:
- Scream Series (DVD/BLU-RAY) (1996-2000)
- Scre4m (DVD/BLU-RAY) (2011)
- Urban Legend (DVD/BLU-RAY) (1998)
- Carved (DVD) (2007)
- The Eye 3 (DVD) (2009)
- Campfire Tales (DVD) (1997)
- Final Destination Series (DVD/BLU-RAY/3-D) (2000-2009)
- "Be Very, Very Afraid" by Jan Brunvard
- "Scary Story Reader" by the Dockery's
- Babysitter Wanted (DVD/BLU-RAY) (2010)
- Halloween (DVD/BLU-RAY) (1978)

I would rate this novel: R For Depictions of Bizarre Horror Violence Throughout, Disturbing Images and Gratuitous Sexuality and Graphic Nudity