| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Down & Out, on the Road: The Homeless in American History. By Kenneth L. Kusmer. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. xii, 332 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-19-504778-8.)

With the economy reeling and "welfare as we know it" at an end, readers will find in Kenneth L. Kusmer's Down & Out, on the Road a critical vantage point from which to measure the renewed homelessness crisis that undoubtedly lies ahead. Known primarily for his work in urban and African American history, Kusmer began his research into this topic some twenty-five years ago, before homelessness had become a keyword in the national lexicon. By expanding the scope of his Ph.D. dissertation to include the contemporary crisis as well as eighteenth- and nineteenth-century precursors, Kusmer has produced the first comprehensive history of American homelessness.

Resisting abstraction at every turn, Down & Out, on the Road focuses squarely on "the homeless in American history," drawing upon a broad range of sources to uncover the lived experiences and social impact of people variously termed vagrants, vagabonds, tramps, hoboes, bums, and street people. As this colorful array of appellations suggests, homelessness has never been a discrete or easily defined social problem. Rather, it has taken many forms over the years, and Kusmer proves himself an expert in tying its changes to larger shifts in the culture, economy, and society of the United States over three centuries.

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