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Loading... Riding the Rails (original 1999; edition 1999)by Errol Lincoln Uys
Work InformationRiding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression by Errol Lincoln Uys (1999)
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  juniperSun | Mar 20, 2014 |   "Riding the Rails sets out to tell about the 250,000 teenagers who hopped freights and lived the hobo life in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash...Uys paints a brisk, colorful, fast-paced portrait of lean times and high hopes." -- Tulsa World "With more than 500 interviews and stunning archival photographs, Uys thoroughly recreates the wretched conditions the boxcar boys and girls endured." -- Chicago Tribune "One of the most poignant memories of the wandering youth of the Great Depression." -- Sacramento Bee "As gripping as it is well-researched." -- Denver Post "A remarkable story" -- Kansas City Star "An elegantly presented and quietly moving collection of firsthand reminiscences, capturing a unique moment in American history. Enthusiastically recommended for all public libraries." -- Library Journal "Whether you're a "gaycat" (novice rider) or a "dingbat" (seasoned hobo), Riding the Rails is entertaining and inspiring, recapturing a time when the country was "dying by inches." -- Sunny Delaney, History Editor, 10 Best History Books of 1999 Amazon.com (  )  Segge | Jul 31, 2007 |
Riding the Rails is a riveting document of hope and hardship during one of this nation's bleakest eras. For all that has been written about the Depression, the travails of those under the age of 18 have been sorely underrepresented. Gripping and well-researched, the reader can all but hear the cadence of the trains and lonesome wail at every whistle-stop.  An elegantly presented and quietly moving collection of firsthand reminiscences, capturing a unique moment in American history. Enthusiastically recommended for all public libraries. "Riding the Rails sets out to tell about the 250,000 teenagers who hopped freights and lived the hobo life in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash...Uys paints a brisk, colorful, fast-paced portrait of lean times and high hopes.  With more than 500 interviews and stunning archival photographs, Uys thoroughly recreates the wretched conditions the boxcar boys and girls endured.
"There is no feeling in the world like sitting in a side-door Pullman and watching the world go by, listening to the clickety-clack of the wheels, hearing that old steam whistle blowing for crossings and towns." -George Phillips in Riding the Rails At the height of the Great Depression, 250,000 teenage hoboes were riding the rails and roaming America. Some left home out of desperation and went looking for work and a better life, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles on the rumor of a job waiting farther down the line. Others left out of boredom; still others with a wanderlustand romantic idea of life on the road. The restless youth of these boxcar boys and girls, many who went from "middle-class gentility to scrabble-ass poor" overnight, is recaptured in Riding the Rails. Based on the award-winning documentary, this book dispels the myths of a hobo existence and reveals the hard stories of a daring generation of American teenagers-forgotten heroes-who survived some of the hardest times in our nations' history. Whether you're a "gaycat" (novice rider) or a "dingbat" (seasoned hobo), Riding the Railsis entertaining and inspiring, recapturing a time when the country was "dying by inches." No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)305.568Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Groups of people Class Lower, alienated, excluded classesLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.86)
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Wikipedia in English (1)
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The book is broken into some major sections (reasons for travel, problems encountered, learning to ask for food or shelter, reasons they stopped)with some commentary which attempted to draw generalizations while still presenting the diversity. The commentary was filled with short quotes from the many contributions and followed by several memoirs based on in-depth interviews of some respondents.
From beatings from railroad bulls and cops, and bosses who changed the agreement after the youth did the work, to whores who would give a meal and (unaccompanied) warm place to sleep, this book both matched and challenged some preconceived ideas of this part of our nation's history. (