273 pages
English language
Published Nov. 8, 2017
"From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon's CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans. Finding that social security comes up short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming a growing community of nomads: migrant laborers who call themselves "workampers." In a secondhand vehicle she christens "Van Halen," Jessica Bruder hits the road to get to know her subjects more intimately. Accompanying her irrepressible protagonist, Linda May, and others, from campground toilet cleaning to warehouse product scanning to desert reunions, then moving on to the dangerous work of beet harvesting, Bruder tells a compelling, eye-opening tale of the dark underbelly of the American economy--one that foreshadows the precarious …
"From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon's CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans. Finding that social security comes up short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming a growing community of nomads: migrant laborers who call themselves "workampers." In a secondhand vehicle she christens "Van Halen," Jessica Bruder hits the road to get to know her subjects more intimately. Accompanying her irrepressible protagonist, Linda May, and others, from campground toilet cleaning to warehouse product scanning to desert reunions, then moving on to the dangerous work of beet harvesting, Bruder tells a compelling, eye-opening tale of the dark underbelly of the American economy--one that foreshadows the precarious future that may await many more of us. At the same time, she celebrates the exceptional resilience and creativity of these quintessential Americans who have given up ordinary rootedness to survive. Like Linda May, who dreams of finding land on which to build her own sustainable "Earthship" home, they have not given up hope."--Jacket flap.
Part road-tripping adventure, part anti-capitalist cautionary tale. This one will stay with you after you've turned the last page.
On one level, this book shows its origins in magazine articles as it skips around a bunch of views of the same topic, and repeats itself a few times (the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous is introduced several times, for instance), but it works because the subject matter is so strong. I'd not seen the film of this, so while I knew about people living in vans, I wasn't aware of just how many there were in the US, nor how old a lot of them were. It's a recreation of a past way of life on the road, but also a signal of what awaits us all, living with less and less and heading back and forth across the country at the beck and call of billionaires and corporations that only see humans as another factor of production, there to be exploited as much as possible. It should be a call …
On one level, this book shows its origins in magazine articles as it skips around a bunch of views of the same topic, and repeats itself a few times (the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous is introduced several times, for instance), but it works because the subject matter is so strong. I'd not seen the film of this, so while I knew about people living in vans, I wasn't aware of just how many there were in the US, nor how old a lot of them were. It's a recreation of a past way of life on the road, but also a signal of what awaits us all, living with less and less and heading back and forth across the country at the beck and call of billionaires and corporations that only see humans as another factor of production, there to be exploited as much as possible. It should be a call to action, but I fear it hasn't been...
Journalistic stark account of precarious migrant labor of would-be retirees, especially post-2008 but many stories and paths to being unable to afford housing and able to scrape by with some sense of independence as long as your body holds up to exhausting physical labor of cleaning outhouses, amusement parks, warehouse fulfillment, or beet harvesting.
This is an eye-opener. This may be my future. It may be yours.
Possible search terms:
Jessica Bruder
Linda May
Dennis Weaver (actor)
Earthship (home)
http://nwlc.org/
Empire, Nevada
workamper
Amzn CamperForce
Bob Wells
cheapRVliving.com
VanDwellers
rvdailyreport.com
Quartzsite, Arizona
Douglas Grand Theatre
Gadsden Hotel
https://www.oecd.org/
http://www.indexmundi.com/
LaVonne Ellis
Silvianne Delmars
Charlene Swankie
