Camping Grounds

An exploration of the hidden history of camping in American life that connects a familiar recreational pastime to camps for functional needs and political purposes.

Camping appears to be a simple proposition, a time-honored way of getting away from it all. Pack up the car and hit the road in search of a shady spot in the great outdoors. For a modest fee, reserve the basic infrastructure--a picnic table, a parking spot, and a place to build a fire. Pitch the
tent and unroll the sleeping bags. Sit under the stars with friends or family and roast some marshmallows. This book reveals that, for all its appeal, the simplicity of camping is deceptive, its history and meanings far from obvious.

Why do some Americans find pleasure in sleeping outside, particularly when so many others, past and present, have had to do so for reasons other than recreation? Never only a vacation choice, camping has been something people do out of dire necessity and as a tactic of political protest. Yet the
dominant interpretation of camping as a modern recreational ideal has obscured the connections to these other roles. A closer look at the history of camping since the Civil War reveals a deeper significance of this American tradition and its links to core beliefs about nature and national
belonging.

Camping Grounds rediscovers unexpected and interwoven histories of sleeping outside. It uses extensive research to trace surprising links between veterans, tramps, John Muir, African American freedpeople, Indian communities, and early leisure campers in the nineteenth century; tin-can tourists,
federal campground designers, Depression-era transients, family campers, backpacking enthusiasts, and political activists in the twentieth century; and the crisis of the unsheltered and the tent-based Occupy Movement in the twenty-first. These entwined stories show how Americans camp to claim a
place in the American republic and why the outdoors is critical to how we relate to nature, the nation, and each other.

"Camping appears to be a simple proposition, a time-honored way of getting away from it all. Yet, as this book demonstrates, the simplicity of camping is deceptive, its history and meanings far from obvious. Why do some Americans find pleasure in sleeping outside, particularly when so many others, past and present, have had to do so for reasons other than recreation? A closer look at the history of camping since the Civil War reveals unexpected connections between its various forms and its deeper significance as an American tradition linked to core beliefs about nature and national belonging. Never only a vacation choice, camping has been something people do out of dire necessity and as a tactic of political protest. Still, the dominance of recreational camping as a modern ideal, and natural idyll, has erased its other forms from our collective memory. Camping Grounds rediscovers these unexpected and interwoven histories of sleeping outside. It uses extensive research to trace surprising links between such varied campers as veterans, tramps, John Muir, newly freed African Americans and early leisure campers in the nineteenth century; federal campground designers, Depression-era transients, family car campers, backpacking enthusiasts, countercultural youth, and political activists in the twentieth century; the crisis of the unsheltered and the tent-based Occupy Movement in the twenty-first. These entwined stories show how Americans camp to claim a place in the American republic and why public spaces of nature are critical to how we relate to nature, the nation, and each other"--

"A varied and comprehensive overview of modern camping with ample detail and sociological perspective on the origins of camping and its roles in war, protest, consumerism, and class discrimination." -- Zebulin Evelhoch, Library Journal

"Young, an environmental historian, traces "camping" back to the Civil War and explores its implications for social justice and political discourse--beyond its more obvious role as a mere diversional outdoor activity." -- Lela Nargi, The Sierra Club

"In Camping Grounds, Phoebe Young presents the surprisingly political history of sleeping outside, in which veterans, vagrants, migrants, recreationists, protestors, bureaucrats, officials, police, and others have fought over the meaning of public nature, with profound implications for American life
and the American social compact. Artfully written, creatively researched, a tour de force that will change the way you see your country." -- Louis S. Warren, University of California, Davis

"In this brilliant new book, Phoebe Young asks a seemingly simple question: 'What does it mean to camp and why does it matter?' The answer is strikingly complex and in its pursuit Camping Grounds offers a radically inclusive vision of America's public nature and environmental culture." -- Char
Miller, author of Not So Golden State: Sustainability vs. the California Dream

"Phoebe Young strips the innocence from sleeping under the stars, revealing this quintessential American pastime as a precarious practice -- one long bedeviled by class tensions, legal wrangling over the definition of camping, and ever-shifting claims on public nature." -- Elizabeth Royte, author of
Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash

"My recommendation?: gather 'round the campfire with a s'more, and read this smart, engaging book. Young exposes the 'simple life' of camping as a complex set of negotiations historically about your environments, your government, your fellow citizens...and yourself." -- Jenny Price, Stop Saving the
Planet!: An Environmentalist Manifesto