Boy and Girl Tramps of America (Hardback)

Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-1-4968-4361-6
Verlag: University Press of Mississippi

Buch, Englisch, 277 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 429 g

Reihe: Cultures of Childhood

In 1933 and 1934, Thomas Minehan, a young sociologist at the University of Minnesota, joined the ranks of a roving army of 250,000 boys and girls torn from their homes during the Great Depression. Disguised in old clothes, he hopped freight trains crisscrossing six midwestern states. While undercover, Minehan associated on terms of social equality with several thousand transients, collecting five hundred life histories of the young migrants. The result was a vivid and intimate portrayal of a harrowing existence, one in which young people suffered some of the deadliest blows of the economic disaster.

Boy and Girl Tramps of America reveals the poignant experiences of American youth who were sent out on the road by grinding poverty, shattered family relationships, and financially strapped schools that locked their doors. For these young people, danger was a constant companion that could turn deadly in an instant. The book documents the hunger and hardships these youth faced, capturing an appalling spectacle and social problem in America’s history before any effort was made to meet the problem on a nationwide basis by the federal government.

Boy and Girl Tramps of America is a work unique in its ability to extend beyond statistical analyses to uncover the opinions, ideas, and attitudes of the boxcar boys and girls. Originally published in 1934, it remains highly relevant to the turbulent moments of the twenty-first century. This reprint features an introduction by scholar Susan Honeyman that puts the work into our current context.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Minehan, Thomas

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Volkskunde: Sitten, Traditionen, Mythen, Legenden
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Soziale Fragen & Probleme
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte

Über Autor(innen)

Thomas Minehan (1903–1948) was instructor of sociology at the University of Minnesota. As a graduate student, he lived among and studied transient teens during the height of the Great Depression. His research was published as Boy and Girl Tramps of America in 1934.

Susan Honeyman is professor of English at the University of Nebraska. She is author of Elusive Childhood: Impossible Representations in Modern Fiction; Consuming Agency in Fairy Tales, Childlore, and Folkliterature; Child Pain, Migraine, and Invisible Disability; and Perils of Protection: Shipwrecks, Orphans, and Children's Rights, the latter published by University Press of Mississippi.