Description

Camping appears to be a simple proposition a timehonored way of getting away from it all This book reveals that for all its appeal 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 Never only a vacation choice camping has been something people do out of dire necessity and as a tactic of political protest Yet the dominant interpretation of camping as a modern recreational ideal has obscured the connections to these other roles

Camping Grounds rediscovers unexpected and interwoven histories of sleeping outside It uses extensive research to trace surprising links between veterans tramps John Muir African American freedpeople Indian communities and early leisure campers in the nineteenth century tincan tourists federal campground designers Depressionera transients family campers backpacking enthusiasts and political activists in the twentieth century and the crisis of the unsheltered and the tentbased Occupy Movement in the twentyfirst These entwined stories show how Americans camp to claim a place in the American republic and why the outdoors is critical to how we relate to nature the nation and each other