RVs & Campers: 1900-2000

by Donald F. Wood

Today, hundreds of thousands of people live in RVs permanently, and even more use campers and RVs for recreation. This is the first and only book to give an entertaining look at the history and evolution of this popular lifestyle and hobby. Hundreds of nostalgic photographs show a wide variety of campers and RVs throughout the entire 20th century. See early auto tent-camping, converted buses, fold-out trailers, homemade campers, foreign exploration expeditions and even traveling chapels with living quarters for pastors! Anyone who has ever enjoyed RVs and campers will be thrilled by this retrospective look at these vehicles and their predecessors throughout the 20th Century. Chapters broken down by decade with brief 2-3 page introductory material for each chapter.

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 4, 2002

Reviews

[Ellen Behrens]

I devoured this book. Organized chronologically and primarily by decade, the book's chapters each begin with a summary of the key developments and impacts on RVing for that period. Many books seem to dwell on the mechanical innovations of recreational vehicles while others focus on the companies and inventors. This book touches on the most important of those while also providing scaffolding other books miss: the impact of Hoovervilles, for example, on how tent campers were perceived and how that drove changes in early campers is something I'd not read in other books.

The illustrations are fantastic, showing common and very uncommon rigs through time. I found myself staring at some of the photos for a long minute, and appreciated the captions that explained what might have been missed on first glance.

On top of all that, the bibliography is extensive and a great resource on its own.

For any serious researcher into the history and development of campers and RVs, this book is a must-read.

[Stephen]

A great expose. Informative and a great resource.

[Sam]

Contained a lot of interesting and unusual Campers both historical photos and more recent (well, if 1998 is recent) of well-used vehicles. I particularly liked the Land Yachts of the 1930s. However, I did feel there was a lot of focus in the customized and refurbished rather than in the core "prefab" models of RVs and campers.

Worth a look for anyone interested in retro campers and historical photos but doesn't offer much for those looking for help in refurbishing an old camper (such as inside stock photos or layouts, though there are a few blueprints for some models).