Roadside Americans: The Rise And Fall Of Hitchhiking In A Changing Nation

"Why read a book about hitchhiking? Because Jack Reid uses the practice to examine shifts in American culture during the 20th century. From being an economic necessity during the Great Depression to becoming a part of the counterculture in the 1960s, by the late ‘70s and ‘80s hitchhiking was seen as dangerous: The hitchhiker was often depicted in TV and film as a deranged psychopath. Roadside Americans carries the reader back to a time when Americans gave people rides without being paid for it."