Camping Grounds

Public Nature in American Life from the Civil War to the Occupy Movement

Phoebe S.K. Young

Reveals how camping is more than a niche vacation practice but connected to core American ideals about nature, the nation, and democracy
Uses camping as a lens onto the shifting political, social, racial, and economic challenges in the nation from the Civil War to the present
Challenges the dominant interpretation of camping as recreational, as well as the framing of "nature-deficit disorder" and the biological benefits of outdoor recreation in nature, presumed to be universal

Camping Grounds

Public Nature in American Life from the Civil War to the Occupy Movement

Phoebe S.K. Young

Description

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 Grounds

Public Nature in American Life from the Civil War to the Occupy Movement

Phoebe S.K. Young

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Public Nature
Part One: 1850s-1880s
Ch. 1. Saving the Union
Ch. 2. Seeing the Country
Part Two: 1890s-1940s
Ch. 3. Tramp Style
Ch. 4. Campers' Republic
Part Three: 1950s-2010s
Ch. 5. The Back to Nature Crowd
ch. 6. Tents and Public Statements
Epilogue: "We MUST Camp"
Notes
Index

Camping Grounds

Public Nature in American Life from the Civil War to the Occupy Movement

Phoebe S.K. Young

Author Information

Phoebe S.K. Young is an associate professor of history at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the author of California Vieja: Culture and Memory in a Modern American Place.

Camping Grounds

Public Nature in American Life from the Civil War to the Occupy Movement

Phoebe S.K. Young

Reviews and Awards

Winner, Norris and Carol Hundley Book Award, Pacific Coast Branch or the American Historical Association

"This is a magnificent study of camping in the US, from the mid-19th century to 2019. Camping has had significantly different meanings at different times in US history, and Young explores three different eras. Early camping was primarily a way of sheltering while traveling, or while in a state of military transition, with emphasis on organizing people....Camping as a choice and pastime emerged later and played a role in changing views of class and race in the US....In the late 19th century, camping became an alternative to resort vacations, taking on social and economic implications. The camping equipment industry and planned campgrounds emerged. The popularity of camping in the second half of the 20th century created environmental and institutional problems, resulting in a wilderness ethic and economic opportunities....Relevant to social and environmental studies and law....Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals." -- Choice

"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