Winnebago Nation: The RV in American CultureJames B.Twitchell. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.

Abstract

Winnebago Nation: The RV in American Culture James B. Twitchell. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.This book is an enjoyable yet serious exploration of the RV culture in the United States. It combines a snapshot history of the culture and industry of the recreation vehicle and its precursors (including those in Britain), insights from anthropological field studies of the life world of various categories of RV users, and the author's own experiences in traveling with his wife in their RV across parts of the country. Twitchell, a retired professor of English and advertising at the University of Florida, also looks at the reflection of the RV ways of life in American popular culture (especially popular literature, movies, advertising, and toys for children) and gives his thoughts on the future of RV communities and the possibility of mobile cities in American society.Twitchell outlines the English origins of camping out for fun. Wealthy Victorians turned the decorated into a moveable bedroom. On many country estates, spending the weekend in a gaudy gypsy wagon was considered a healthy antidote against the stresses of city life. In addition, the hunting could be made suitable for overnight camping. The author emphasizes that the further development of auto camping was hindered by narrow roads and expensive fuel. He fails to notice that with the rise of prosperity among the broader population in Western European countries in the 1960s and after, and the building of large stretches of highway across Europe, the use of campers for vacationing became popular there too. The introduction by the Germans of the Volkswagen type 2 (also called Volkswagen bus or camper) was a major driving force in all of this. But Twitchell does recognize that one of the many permutations of the original Volkswagen bus, the Westfalia, was a motor vehicle type from which the smaller (Class C) RV in America evolved.The railroads were important in opening the American West, but rail travel was uncomfortable, as Twitchell points out. Rail travel was disliked by many travelers, especially women. The hotels, owned and controlled by oligopolies, catered primarily to a new kind of traveler: the drummer, the male salesman. These men were often impolite and noisome, while the people who served these travelers-clerks, bellhops, chamber maids-were often also off-putting in the eyes of train travelers, as they expected to receive a new form of payment, the tip. In comparison, auto camping, which let you play around, was attractive, and it was female-friendly. An important aspect of this new form of travel was that many women felt safe sleeping incars.Until the mid-1930s, these RVers avant la lettre were decidedly upper class. Decisive in the further popularization of auto camping was the impact of advertising and modern public relations on the rise of American tourism. Railroads and the cities they served paid newspapers and magazine to run see See America First campaigns. Moreover, the car companies encouraged customers to use their cars to go vacationing by turning their newfangled automobiles into RVs. Here the so-called Vagabonds (Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and poet/naturalist John Burroughs) played a crucial role. They hit the road and showed these people how to do auto camping. They were even lobbying the federal government to create what would become the National Park Service so that there would be places for people to park their cars. Ironically, today much effort is dedicated to the opposite: keeping motorized rigs out of places like Yellowstone.There are various lines of influence on the current RV and the culture of RVing which are mentioned in this book. These include innovations such as, in the 1930s, the trailer that was like an airplane and the towing vehicle which was designed to fit it; in the late 1940s, cars like the Nash Rambler and the Studebaker Slumber Coupe that had the option to turn into sleepers by providing fold-down front seats; and the highly popular, multi-purpose station of the 1950s and 1960s. …