The American Vagrant in Literature

Widespread panic once generated by 'tramps' produced interdisciplinary and international dialogue on race, work, and welfare

Comparative study of US and European sources in the area of literature, ethnography and policy making
Creates new framework for interpreting canonical authors and texts, such as John Steinbeck, Jack London, George Orwell and more
Refreshes conventional literary periodization by focusing on the long development of vagrancy memoir and tramp writing from late nineteenth century

This book argues that the rapid development of anti-vagrancy laws in the late nineteenth century, which were written alongside widespread public fascination with 'tramps', facilitated a transatlantic dialogue between sources eager to modernize the state's ability to describe, catalogue, and manage this roving population. Almost always depicted as white, solitary, and artistic, the tramp character was once a menacing threat to society only to disappear from the public eye by the postwar period. This book brings to light the often-surprising lines of influence between authors, sociologists, and government authorities who alike seized on the social panic around tramping in order to reimagine the relation of work to national citizenship.