New Travel Book: ‘Are We There Yet?’

Travel Blog  •  Elyse Franko  •  06.17.08 | 1:30 PM ET

imageFull title: “Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations”

Author: Susan Sessions Rugh

Released: May 22, 2008

Travel genre: Travel history

Territory covered: Highways of America

Promo copy: “When TV celebrity Dinah Shore sang See the USA in your Chevrolet, 1950s America took her to heart. Every summer, parents piled the kids in the back seat, threw the luggage in the trunk, and took to the open highway. Chronicling this innately American ritual, Susan Rugh presents a cultural history of the American middle-class family vacation from 1945 to 1973, tracing its evolution from the establishment of this summer tradition to its decline. The first in-depth look at post-World War II family travel, Rugh’s study recounts how postwar prosperity and mass consumption—abetted by paid vacation leave, car ownership, and the new interstate highway system—forged the ritual of the family road trip and how that ritual became entwined with what it meant to be an American.”

Critical verdict, Zagat-style: Rugh has written “a fascinating exploration of excursions from 1945 to the ‘70s” (Washington Post) that’s “well researched and a valuable addition to the study of 20th-century popular culture and history.” (Library Journal)

Listen: The author talks about her book on NPR

Find It: Powell’s, Amazon, publisher

Tags: North America, United States

Elyse Franko is a Long Island native, a graduate of the American University School of Communication in Washington, D.C., and a former World Hum intern. During her time at university, she wrote and edited for several campus publications and fostered her love for traveling by spending time abroad in Istanbul, Turkey, and Berlin, Germany. She currently works as a teaching assistant in Vienna, Austria.


No comments for New Travel Book: ‘Are We There Yet?’.

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.