(Progress in Human Geography)

This book provides the first account of the invention of the tramp as a social type in the United States between the 1870s and the 1930s. Tim Cresswell considers the ways in which the tramp was imagined and described and how, by the Second World War, it was being reclassified and rendered invisible. He describes the "tramp scare" of the late nineteenth century and explores the assumption that tramps were invariably male and therefore a threat to women. Cresswell also examines tramps as comic figures and looks at the work of prominent American photographers which signaled a sympathetic portrayal of this often-despised group. Perhaps most significantly, "The Tramp in America calls into question the common assumption that mobility played a central role in the production of American identity.

The Tramp in America vividly describes the invention of the tramp as a social type in the United States between 1869 and 1939. Tim Cresswell considers the ways in which the figure of the tramp was imagined, written and spoken about, and how by the Second World War it was being reclassified, renamed, and rendered invisible. The book calls into question the common assumption that mobility played a central role in the production of American identity.

Cresswell describes the tramp scare of the late nineteenth century in terms of the major factors that influenced the tramp's existence: the political and economic climate, the technology of the railroad, and the after-effects of the Civil War. He goes on to explore various stereotypes associated with tramps, for example, the prevalent assumption was that tramps were male and were a threat to women in domestic environments, but accounts exist of female tramps who took to the road disguised as men. Another stereotype prevalent in medical and eugenicist writings saw tramps as untrustworthy, diseased, and unsound in their heredity, ultimately suggesting reasons for their exclusion from democratic processes. As comic figures, characters such as Charlie Chaplin's tramp and the Happy Hooligan cartoons illustrate how the tramp's body, and especially mobility, were used to invert audience expectations about what was considered normal. Cresswell also looks at the Chicago School of Sociology's attempts to analyze and explain the tramp question. Finally, he looks at the work of a number of prominent American photographers, among them Dorothea Lange, whose sympathetic portrayals signalled a change in attitude towards this often-despised group.

Tim Cresswell is a lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Aberystwyth, Wales. He is the author of In Place/Out of Place: Geography, Ideology and Transgression (University of Minnesota Press, 1996).