Good company : a tramp life / Douglas Harper.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harper, Douglas A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tramps--United States.

Tramps.

United States.

Homelessness--United States.

Homelessness.

Physical Description:

218 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Edition:

Updated and expanded edition.

Place of Publication:

Boulder : Paradigm Publishers, [2006]

Summary:

Good Company: A Tramp Life is a vivid portrait of a lifestyle long part of America's history. The author traveled extensively by freight train to gain rich insights into the elusive world of the tramp. Richly illustrated with seventy-three photographs by the author, the book presents the homeless man as an individual who "drank, migrated, and worked at day labor" rather than the stereotype of a victim of alcoholism. The tramps with whom Harper shared boxcars and hobo jungles were the labor force that harvested the crops in most of the apple orchards in the Pacific Northwest. They were drawn to the harvest from across the United States and migrated primarily on freight trains, as had hobos in the 1930s. Although not without its problems, the tramp way of life is a fierce and independent culture that has been an integral part of our American identity and an important part of our agricultural economy.

Since the first edition of this classic book was published by the University of Chicago Press, the tramp way of life has been superceded by a violent culture of drug gangs who control many of the freight lines Harper once rode. In other parts of United States the trains have become a shadowy highway for illegal migrants. This significantly revised and updated edition describes the evolution of tramp culture to its disturbing new forms, while interpreting the tramp in the context of contemporary homelessness. In telling the story of the tramp, Harper describes the structural, economic, and sociological forces behind all forms of homelessness in U.S. society. This new edition includes twenty-four previously unpublished photographs from the original research.

Contents:

Part 1 On the Road 5

1 Waiting for a train 7

2 An old tramp 12

3 You can't trust everybody you meet 17

4 Two cans of beans 26

5 Another ascent of the Rockies 34

6 We arrived in Wenatchee 43

7 A tall thin tramp 57

8 Boston Blackie 66

9 One-Eyed Jack 72

10 The ride up the branch 81

11 Riffraff 90

12 Rubber tramp 95

13 Harvest jungle 103

14 To the orchard 110

15 As Golden's ripen 121

16 Going home 131

Part 2 The Rise and Fall of the Tramp 137

17 How tramp life was transformed 178

18 Whither the tramp? 187.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-207).

ISBN:

1594511837

1594511845

OCLC:

63125881

Publisher Number:

9781594511837 (hc)

9781594511844 (pbk)