Nels Anderson was a pioneer in the study of the homeless. In the early 1920s Anderson combined his own experience "on the bummery," with his keen sociological insight to give voice to a largely ignored underclass. He remains an extraordinary and underrated figure in the history of American sociology.

On Hobos and Homelessness includes Anderson's rich and vibrant ethnographic work of a world of homeless men. He conducted his study on Madison street in Chicago, and we come to intimately know this portion of the 1920s hobo underworld--the harshness of vagrant life and the adventures...

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

2014 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This is an account, written with insight and sympathy, of the life of the hobo, life in "Hobohemia," a frontier that was already beginning to vanish when this study originally appeared in 1923. The author, drawing from his own experience as a hobo, pictures life in the "main stem" of Halsted and State Streets in Chicago. Here are the customs and class distinctions, language, songs, morals and intellectual life of this body of men who, for widely varying reasons, chose the...