Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

by Jessica Bruder

Overview

“People who thought the 2008 financial collapse was over a long time ago need to meet the people Jessica Bruder got to know in this scorching, beautifully written, vivid, disturbing (and occasionally wryly funny) book.” —Rebecca Solnit

From the beet fields of North Dakota to the campgrounds of California to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older adults. These invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in RVs and modified vans, forming a growing community of nomads.

Nomadland tells a revelatory tale of the dark underbelly of the American economy—one which foreshadows the precarious future that may await many more of us. At the same time, it celebrates the exceptional resilience and creativity of these Americans who have given up ordinary rootedness to survive, but have not given up hope.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393356311
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	52,448
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jessica Bruder is an award-winning journalist whose work focuses on subcultures and the dark corners of the economy.
She has written for Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times,
and the Washington Post. Bruder teaches at the Columbia
School of Journalism.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Part 1

1 The Squeeze Inn 3

2 The End 29

3 Surviving America 39

4 Escape Plan 69

Part 2

5 Amazon Town 95

6 The Gathering Place 115

7 The Rubber Tramp Rendezvous 135

8 Halen 163

9 Some Unbeetable Experiences 183

Part 3

10 The H Word 201

11 Homecoming 207

Coda: The Octopus in the Coconut 243

Acknowledgments 253

Notes 257

Editorial Reviews

This is an important book.… A calmly stated chronicle of devastation. But told as story after story, it is also a riveting collection of tales about irresistible people—quirky, valiant people who deserve respect and a decent life.

Louise Erdrich

[A] devastating, revelatory book.

Timothy R. Smith - Washington Post

Some readers will come because they’re enamored of road narratives, but Bruder’s study should be of interest to anyone who cares about thefuture of work, community, and retirement.

Peter C. Baker - Pacific Standard

Important, eye-opening journalism.

Kim Ode - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Bruder is a poised and graceful writer.

Parul Sehgal - New York Times

A remarkable book of immersive reporting.… Bruder is an acute and compassionate observer.

Margaret Talbot - The New Yorker

A first-rate piece of immersive journalism.

San Francisco Chronicle

Stirring reportage.

O Magazine

At once wonderfully humane and deeply troubling, the book offers an eye-opening tour of the increasingly unequal, unstable, and insecure future our country is racing toward.

Astra Taylor - The Nation

Bruder tells [this] story with gripping insight, detail and candor. In the hands of a fine writer, this is a terrific profile of a subculture that gets little attention, or is treated by the media as a quirky hobby, rather than a survival strategy.

Peter Simon - Buffalo News

In the early twentieth century, men used to ride the rails in search of work, sharing camps at night. Today, as Bruder brilliantly reports, we have a new class of nomadic workers who travel in their RVs from one short-term job to another. There’s a lot to cringe at here—from low pay and physically exhausting work to constant insecurity. But surprisingly, Nomadland also offers its residents much-needed camaraderie and adventure, which makes this book a joy to read.”

Barbara Ehrenreich

The campsite as the home of last resort, the RV used not for vacation but for survival: these are the makings of a new dystopia. Nomadland is a smart road book for the new economy, full of conviviality and dark portent.”

Ted Conover

[A]
powerhouse of a book. . . . In the best immersive-journalism tradition, Bruder records her

misadventures driving and living in a van. . . . Visceral and haunting reporting.

starred review Booklist

People who thought the 2008 financial collapse was over a long time ago need to meet the people Jessica Bruder got to know in this scorching, beautifully written, vivid, disturbing (and occasionally wryly funny) book. Nomadland is a testament both to the generosity and creativity of the victims of our modern-medieval economy, hidden in plain sight, and to the blunt-end brutality that put them there. Is this the best the wealthiest nation on earth can do for those who’ve already done so much?”

Rebecca Solnit

Stunning and beautifully written. . . brilliant and haunting

Arlie Russell Hochschild - New York Times Book Review

In this stunning and beautifully written book, Bruder…describes her journey with Linda and her other interviews conducted in five states over three years…[a] brilliant and haunting book…

The New York Times Book Review - Arlie Russell Hochschild

…an important…work influenced by such classics of immersion journalism as Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed…Bruder is a poised and graceful writer.

The New York Times - Parul Sehgal

05/29/2017
Journalist Bruder (Burning Book) expands on an article originally published in Harper’s where she examined the phenomenon of aging Americans adjusting to an economic climate in which they can’t afford to retire. Many among them have discarded “stick and brick” traditional homes for “wheel estate” in the form of converted vans and RVs and have formed a nomadic culture of “workampers,” evoking the desperate resourcefulness of those who lived through the Great Depression. Bruder follows her subjects as they harvest sugar beets, work at Amazon fulfillment centers during the holidays, and act as campground hosts. She conducts extensive interviews, attends the workampers’ gatherings, and tests out survival tips, to the point where she makes “houselessness”—a lifestyle born out of necessity and compromise—seem like a new form of freedom, with its own kind of appeal. Of course, she also addresses the often-crushing financial and social circumstances in which these people live, and pointedly touches on the racial considerations that make this nomadic lifestyle a predominantly white trend. Tracing individuals throughout their journeys from coast to coast, Bruder conveys the phenomenon’s human element, making this sociological study intimate, personal, and entertaining, even as the author critiques the economic factors behind the trend. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 07/01/2017
What do you do when your mortgage is underwater, when a divorce or medical catastrophe depletes your savings, or when your anticipated retirement becomes financially impossible? A growing number of Americans address these crushing challenges by taking to the road, with an RV, van, or even a small car as their permanent home. Journalist Bruder joined these contemporary nomads, known as van-dwellers or "workampers." She closely follows Linda, in her mid-60s and traveling between jobs at an Amazon warehouse and a park campground. Linda and her growing "vanily" (van-dweller family) run the gamut of ages and backstories, though there is a preponderance of older people who are unable to retire and work physically strenuous, low-wage jobs to get by. Bruder touches on the deep social stigma of homelessness (van-dwellers fiercely reject that description), the surprisingly short history of the concept of retirement, the rarity of van-dwellers of color, and strategies for docking in plain sight in urban areas and finding a safe haven in rural areas. The people she meets exhibit pride, grit, resourcefulness, resilience, and, profoundly, the elation of freedom mingled with the terror of being one mechanical breakdown away from ruin. VERDICT A must-read that is simultaneously hopeless and uplifting and certainly unforgettable.—Janet Ingraham Dwyer, State Lib. of Ohio, Columbus

Library Journal

★ 2017-05-09
Journalist Bruder (Burning Book: A Visual History of Burning Man, 2007) expands her remarkable cover story for Harper's into a book about low-income Americans eking out a living while driving from locale to locale for seasonal employment.From the beginning of her immersion into a mostly invisible subculture, the author makes it clear that the nomads—many of them senior citizens—refuse to think of themselves as "homeless." Rather, they refer to themselves as "houseless," as in no longer burdened by mortgage payments, repairs, and other drawbacks, and they discuss "wheel estate" instead of real estate. Most of them did not lose their houses willingly, having fallen victim to mortgage fraud, job loss, health care debt, divorce, alcoholism, or some combination of those and additional factors. As a result, they sleep in their cars or trucks or cheaply purchased campers and try to make the best of the situation. At a distance, the nomads might be mistaken for RV owners traveling the country for pleasure, but that is not the case. Bruder traveled with some of the houseless for years while researching and writing her book. She builds the narrative around one especially accommodating nomad, senior citizen Linda May, who is fully fleshed on the page thanks to the author's deep reporting. May and her fellow travelers tend to find physically demanding, low-wage jobs at Amazon.com warehouses that aggressively seek seasonal workers or at campgrounds, sugar beet harvest sites, and the like. The often desperate nomads build communities wherever they land, offering tips for overcoming common troubles, sharing food, repairing vehicles, counseling each other through bouts of depression, and establishing a grapevine about potential employers. Though very little about Bruder's excellent journalistic account offers hope for the future, an ersatz hope radiates from within Nomadland: that hard work and persistence will lead to more stable situations. Engaging, highly relevant immersion journalism.

Kirkus Reviews

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