Camping grounds public nature in American life from the Civil War to the Occupy Movement / Phoebe S.K. Young.
| Author/creator | Young, Phoebe S. K., 1970- |
| Other author | Oxford University Press. |
| Format | Electronic |
| Publication Info | New York : Oxford University Press, [2021] |
| Description | xiii, 414 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm |
| Supplemental Content | Full text available from Oxford Scholarship Online |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Introduction: a public nature -- Part One: Outdoor strategies, 1850s-1890s -- Campfires and comrades -- The roads home -- Part Two: Outdoor promises, 1880s-1940s -- Tramps and tramp style -- Establishing the campers' republic -- Part Three: Outdoor challenges, 1950s-2010s -- The back to nature crowd -- Occupying public ground epilogue: "We MUST camp". |
| Abstract | "Camping appears to be a simple proposition, a time-honored way of getting away from it all. Yet, as this book demonstrates, the simplicity of camping is deceptive, its history and meanings far from obvious. Why do some Americans find pleasure in sleeping outside, particularly when so many others, past and present, have had to do so for reasons other than recreation? A closer look at the history of camping since the Civil War reveals unexpected connections between its various forms and its deeper significance as an American tradition linked to core beliefs about nature and national belonging. Never only a vacation choice, camping has been something people do out of dire necessity and as a tactic of political protest. Still, the dominance of recreational camping as a modern ideal, and natural idyll, has erased its other forms from our collective memory. Camping Grounds rediscovers these unexpected and interwoven histories of sleeping outside. It uses extensive research to trace surprising links between such varied campers as veterans, tramps, John Muir, newly freed African Americans and early leisure campers in the nineteenth century; federal campground designers, Depression-era transients, family car campers, backpacking enthusiasts, countercultural youth, and political activists in the twentieth century; the crisis of the unsheltered and the tent-based Occupy Movement in the twenty-first. These entwined stories show how Americans camp to claim a place in the American republic and why public spaces of nature are critical to how we relate to nature, the nation, and each other"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-392) and index. |
| Access restriction | Available only to authorized users. |
| Technical details | Mode of access: World Wide Web |
| Genre/form | Electronic books. |
| LCCN | 2020045699 |
| ISBN | 9780195372410 (hardback) |
| ISBN | (epub) |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electronic Resources | Access Content Online | ✔ Available |