ROADSIDE AMERICANS The Rise and Fall of Hitchhiking in a Changing Nation

Golden Voice narrator Johnny Heller brings this audiobook about hitchhiking to life. He narrates engagingly with a sureness of tone and a plainspoken style that suits the many interesting stories, personal histories, and critiques of hitching rides. The author includes anecdotes of famous people: Ronald Reagan hitched to Iowa for college, Steve Jobs thumbed his way across Europe, Bob Dylan grabbed rides on his way from Minnesota to New York City, and more. The audiobook's purpose is to show how hitchhiking mirrors the cultural trajectory of the country from the early days of clean-cut roadside travelers in the 1920s to the hip counterculture hitchhikers of the late 1960s to the decline in hitchhiking in the 1980s, when thumbing rides fell out of favor as a form of adventure travel. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2020]