Main entry:

Belasco, Warren James.

Title & Author:

Americans on the road : from autocamp to motel, 1910-1945 / Warren James Belasco.

Edition:

Johns Hopkins paperbacks ed.

Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

Description:

ix, 212 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Notes:
Originally published: Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©1979.
Originally published: Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c1979.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-205) and index.
1. Gypsying: 1910-1920 -- 2. Cars versus Trains: Back to Stagecoach Days -- 3. Autocamping versus Hotels: Back to the Family Homestead -- 4. From Fad to Institution: Municipal Autocamps, 1920-1924 -- 5. Limiting Access: Pay Camps, 1923-1926 -- 6. Early Motels: 1925-1945.

Summary:

In Americans on the Road, Warren James Belasco uses travel magazines, trade journals, and diaries to "look at what Americans actually did with their cars rather than try to judge what cars did to Americans." Belasco begins with the earliest days of automobile travel in America - when travelers camped wherever they stopped along the roadside, "gypsying" in their cars or in tents - and moves on to chart the growth in the 1920s of free municipal campsites. As the cost of building and maintaining these campsites steadily rose, towns began requiring patrons to pay a small fee. The steady stream of paying customers prompted entrepreneurs to build inexpensive restaurants and lodgings - and, Belasco concludes, "the motel industry was born."

Resources:
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description

ISBN:

0801857341 (alk. paper)
9780801857348 (alk. paper)

Subject:

Automobile travel United States History.
Tourist camps, hostels, etc. United States History.
Motels United States History.
Voyages en automobile États-Unis Histoire.
Hébergement touristique États-Unis Histoire.
Motels États-Unis Histoire.
Automobile travel.
Motels.
Tourist camps, hostels, etc.
Autogebruik.
Toerisme.
United States.

Form/genre:

History.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 191583
Call No.: ID GV1021.B37; ID:97-B2557
Status: Available