Office: HGH 210; phone: (408) 924-5378
Email: wooda@email.sjsu.edu
Web: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda
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Dr. Andrew Wood Office: HGH 210; phone: (408) 924-5378 Email: wooda@email.sjsu.edu Web: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda |
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Reading: Belasco, W.J. (1997). Americans on the road: From autocamp to motel, 1910-1945. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Study guide: Focus on (1) two key words in travel literature, (2) standard time, (3) See America First movement, (4) virus analogy, (5) call for the "strenuous life"
In his chapter, "Gypsying: 1910-1920" (pp. 7-17), Warren Belasco describes American's initial enthusiasm for automobility - the freedom of the road, the ability to drive or stop without dependence on the railroad system. Metaphors of this new freedom included sailing, lordship (of a mobile manner) and, most popularly, gypsying and hoboing. Most importantly, this kind of freedom signaled a temporary rejection of Victorian bourgeois values, mocking the hotel veranda "with its fancy dress parade and genteel idleness" (p. 11).
One critical component of the auto gypsy movement was a revised view of labor. To many "modern" folks of the early twentieth century, the increasingly abstract nature of their jobs called for a return to pre-modern reality, a more organic connection to nature: "Aching to break loose of everyday ruts, the tired office worker hoped to re-establish more transcendent priorities" (p. 13). Of course, this is not to presume that upscale "motor gypsies" would take upon themselves the poverty and lack of security of those icons they emulated for too long. Despite the supposedly "instinctual" restlessness shared by all people, turn of the century motor hobos maintained their class distinctions in subtle and obvious ways. Their search for Arcadia represents a vacation from modernism, but hardly a rebuke of its benefits: "Even in its most libertarian stage, autocamping was always dedicated to revising everyday commitments" (p. 16).
In his chapter, "Cars versus trains: Back to stagecoach days" (pp. 19-39), Belasco examines the ironic nature of motorized nostalgia - use of the machine to reenter the garden. He notes that modernity strives to assert its power over the present by reconstituting elements of the pre-modern for its own uses: "Where modern societies and traditional societies are contemporaneous, the search for the past is a weapon of change" (p. 19). For turn of the century Americans, the revolutionary automobile became promised a nostalgic regression to pre-railroad forms of travel that was more intimate, more personal, somehow more authentic.
Most obviously, the automobile represented a rebuke to Standard Time, that artificial imposition of abstract railroad timetables upon the undulating earth. The car, in contrast, was pictured as being more connected to the twists and turns of the road. Finally, the car represented freedom in space. Not confined by the rigid grid of rails, the motorist could set any number of courses from place to place. This freedom took on an ideological bent when joined with the "See America First" movement, a boost for domestic travel that gained popularity during World War One, when international tourism was limited. In particular, the West - long the playground of American dreams - promised simpler, rougher, more honest people than those found in the great cities of the East and Europe abroad.
No matter where they traveled - distant lands or nearby small towns - early motorists found the inhabitants of their destinations ready to meet their picturesque visions in the form of well appointed main streets, in sharp contrast to the depressing sides of urbanity saved for railroaders. Naturally, local boosters were more than willing to accommodate the expectations of their visitors: "Antiquarians refurbished old inns for the motor trade or sought to convert long-neglected roadhouses into 'wayside tavernes' suggestive of coaching days" (p. 29). Thus, the past became a playground for motorists who were ambivalent about their modern world.
The manner of travel - strenuous and even dangerous - itself became a virtue. As opposed to the "feminized" nature of railroad travel, the (presumably masculine) motorist depended upon wits and grit. This celebration of struggle takes on cultural significance: "At a time when growing specialization seemed to threaten individual autonomy, autocamping offered training in traditional values of self-help and all-around dexterity" (p. 31). Indeed, the risks to body and vehicle were quickly viewed as badges of honor, proof that you had actually traveled.
Activities
Visit the Library of Congress American Memory Collection at <http://memory.loc.gov/>. Select an image that illustrates a concept from chapters one or two. For your Show and Tell activity, describe the context of the image. Focus on the scene, technology, media, and other elements you can find. You'll wish to spend some time looking through this collection. To get started, try some phrases as Pullman Car, Model T, or Auto Camp.
Visit my Roadside Humor Postcards page <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/motelhumor.html> and select one postcard. For your Show and Tell activity, identify at least three specific components of this image that relate to an interesting idea raised by the Belasco reading.
Visit my Wal-Mart of the Roadside site at: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/motelholidayinn.html. For your Show and Tell activity, identify a significant trend in Holiday Inn. You might choose to focus on its changing slogans or evolving architecture. Your goal is to illustrate the larger theme of standardization as represented by Holiday Inn.