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

Camping appears to be a simple proposition, a time-honored way of getting away from it all. 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 politic...