Hoboes: Wandering in America, 1870-1940

Wormser, Richard

3.75

8 ratings by Goodreads

9780802782809: Hoboes: Wandering in America, 1870-1940

ISBN 10: 0802782809 ISBN 13: 9780802782809

Publisher: Walker & Co, 1994

Explores the lives of hobos in America as the nation pushed westward during the end of the last century and the beginning of this, showing how hobos, ostracized by society, developed their own tight-knit, colorful community and culture.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 7 Up-A highly readable and informative book that sheds light on a subject and social subclass that most of today's young people know little or nothing about: the hoboes, tramps, and bums of the past. Wormser explains that American hoboes were compulsively itinerant laborers, with roots extending back to the frontier migrants and Old World wanderers; they took part in America's industrial revolution by building railroads, lumbering, harvesting grain, etc. It was these men- and a number of women, especially during the Great Depression-who created a "world [that] had its own rules, literature, songs, customs, and language." The chapter about the "road kids" is especially moving, for although these young people could be seemingly independent and resourceful, they could also be very vulnerable and subject to sexual and other exploitation. Wormser makes extensive use of period illustrations and photographs; he quotes generously from the writings and reminiscences of the vagabonds, including the lyrics of folksongs, ballads, and poetry. He concludes his social history with a look at Jack Kerouac on the road in the '50s and goes on to note that any connection between today's homeless and the hoboes of the past is tenuous at best, for there are many more differences than similarities. Hoboes would complement well Chester Aaron's fictional Lackawanna (Lippincott, 1986; o.p.).
David A. Lindsey, Lakewood Junior/Senior High School, WA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Gr. 6-12. "The hobo wanders and works. The tramp wanders but does not work, and the bum neither wanders nor works." Quotes by hoboes about their world--its rules, literature, songs, customs, and language--and many stirring black-and-white documentary photographs enliven this account of those who rode the trains in search of a job from the end of the Civil War to the start of World War II. Wormser evokes the adventure of the hobo journey, the romance of the rugged individual, the pride and the exhilaration of "flipping freights" (hoboes rode on, in, and under every section of the train; some photos even show them riding on the rods underneath the train). At the same time, he's frank about the brutal reality of living on the edge in hard times--the hunger, the viciousness, the "jungle" warfare. This is also an essential part of labor history, and there's a fascinating chapter on the Wobblies, who tried to organize the wandering workers and improve conditions. From the beginning, readers will be struck by the differences and similarities between those hoboes and today's homeless people and migrant workers; but, unfortunately, Wormser doesn't connect past and present except in a brief epilogue. He includes bibliographic references for each chapter; and the final hobo dictionary captures the community of the bindle stiff in all its wildness and melancholy. Hazel Rochman

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.