{"product_id":"hobo-robert-suits-9780691284668","title":"The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA panoramic history of America's first climate migrants\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom the mid-nineteenth century through the dust bowl years of the Great Depression, a new kind of migrant worker became a familiar sight in communities across America. \u003ci\u003eThe Hobo\u003c\/i\u003e traces the journeys of these homeless men and women, showing how hobo work was an adaptation to energy transitions and a harsh and unpredictable climate, and how the hobo played a central role in the histories of industrialization and westward expansion. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eChallenging common depictions of the hobo as a world-weary, bearded man in ragged clothes, Robert Suits reveals how these wandering laborers were often fastidious and heartbreakingly young. Forever on the move due to economic hardship and climate disaster, they chased harvests and took seasonal jobs in industries like logging and mining. Too often they couldn't find employment at all. Suits describes the difficult, dangerous, and highly unstable jobs they worked while shedding light on the hobo life and philosophy, from their techniques for stowing away on railroads to their unique blend of socialist, anarchist, and anti-work thought. He traces the emergence of the hobo to the advent of steam and the need for manual laborers in places where this new technology couldn't reach and describes how a growing reliance on the internal combustion engine brought an end to hobo work. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDrawing on oral histories, environmental data, and cutting-edge digital methods, \u003ci\u003eThe Hobo\u003c\/i\u003e paints an unforgettable portrait of an eclectic group of wandering radicals, troublemakers, poets, and writers, demonstrating how their experiences upend some of our basic assumptions about how environments and technologies shape society.","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50060034343105,"sku":"9780691284668","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0781\/5512\/0833\/files\/9780691284668.jpg?v=1773777013","url":"https:\/\/www.porchlightbooks.com\/products\/hobo-robert-suits-9780691284668","provider":"Porchlight Book Company","version":"1.0","type":"link"}