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4.0 out of 5 stars
The Culture of Long-Haul Trucking, Jan 12 2009
This review is from: Trucking Country: The Road to America's Wal-Mart Economy (Hardcover)
"Trucking Country" is a social, economic, and cultural history of Long-haul trucking. Shane Hamilton's monograph is a welcome addition to the legacy of New Deal liberalism and the neoliberal shift during the 70s that saw the Reagan era redefine what it meant to be a long-haul trucker.
Hamilton's thesis is that as the emergence of "agribusiness" forced small-town farmers out of their plots, they increasing turned to trucking. From industry's point of view, trucking was the unregulated alternative to breaking the monopolies of the meat-packers, the beef trusts, the milk cartels, and allowed the new middle-class demands for "always low prices" to be institutionalized. Truckers on the other hand, the libertarian anti-statists who resisted the big-boss unions, formed a truly unique identity as a modern-day "American Cowboy" and the cult of personality was born surrounding the myth of the "king of the open road."
Overall, I appreciated very much so the detailed research and wonderful descriptions of rural America. As both an academic text and a casual read, I definitely recommend "Trucking Country" for anyone who wants to learn more about the social history of agrarian USA.
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