On Hobos and Homelessness

by Anderson, Nels; Rauty, Raffaele

• ISBN13: 9780226019673
• ISBN10: 0226019675
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Nels Anderson was a pioneer in the study of the homeless. In the early 1920s Anderson combined his own experience "on the bummery," with his keen sociological insight to give voice to a largely ignored underclass. He remains an extraordinary and underrated figure in the history of American sociology. On Hobos and Homelessness includes Anderson's rich and vibrant ethnographic work of a world of homeless men. He conducted his study on Madison street in Chicago, and we come to intimately know this portion of the 1920s hobo underworld--the harshness of vagrant life and the adventures of young hobos who come to the big city. This selection also includes Anderson's later work on the juvenile and the tramp, the unattached migrant, and the family. Like John Steinbeck's Depression-era observations, Anderson's writings express the memory of those who do not seem entitled to have memory, whose lives were expressed in temporary labor.

Table of Contents

Introduction The Hobos

Introduction to the Phoenix Edition ofThe Hobo

Hobohemia Defined

The Jungles: The Homeless Man Abroad

The Lodging House: The Homeless Man at Home

The Hobo and the Tramp

Summary of Findings and Recommendations

Summary of a Study of Four Hundred Tramps, Summer 1921

How and the Hobos: Character Sketch of J.E. How, "Millionaire Hobo"

The Slum: A Project for Study

The Juvenile and the Tramp

An Old Problem in New Form

The Unattached Migrant

Migrancy and the Labor Market

A Family in the Hobomania Era

The Sort of Jobs the Hobo Brought Urban Context: Work, and Leisure

Some Dimensions of Time

The Trend of Urban Sociology

Urbanism as a Way of Life

Selected Bibliography

Index

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