Allegiance to Winds and Waters: Bicycling the Political Divides of the United States

by Anne Winkler-Morey

In Allegiance to Winds and Waters, a laid-off college professor from Minneapolis bicycles the perimeter of the US with her spouse. Inspired by a study showing that Americans of all ideological stripes are united in desiring a more equitable economy, she sets out to discover why we don’t have what we want.

On the 420-day bicycle tour, she discovers US regions unique in beauty and culture, but similar in the things that ail them: historical trauma, unsustainable local economies, gross inequities, and crippling fears of people outside their borders.

Winkler-Morey finds a way to talk back to her own ghosts, and she discovers paths to overcoming the endemic inequality, nativism and urban/rural divisions that threaten the United States.

Allegiance to Winds and Waters mixes the angst and hilarious misadventures of an unlikely bicyclist, poignant stories of the strangers she meets, and acute observations of a historian and social activist.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

351 pages, Paperback

First published March 10, 2022

Reviews

[Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My heart is full after finishing Allegiance To Winds and Waters! This book is raw, honest, brave, painful, and full of the best kind of love. Full disclosure: Anne is a long-time friend of mine, but I've come to really know her through her writing here. In a country so damaged by Reaganism, neoliberalism, capitalism, colonialism, racism, and now grappling with the extremely toxic shit that came in on the bottom of Donald Trump's shoe, the final chapter with its call for radical hospitality is a light that can perhaps guide our way forward to a better world.

[David Winkler-Morey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Allegiance to Winds and Waters is a great read, both a moving memoir and an incredible adventure. Anne takes us along on her epic 12,000-mile bike tour around the USA and provides unique insights into the people and places she visits. She looks at the world through the lens of a trained historian, activist, and trauma survivor. She explores the question, what makes us safe and contrasts it to the stories we tell ourselves about safety.

[Sally Lieberman · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love memoirs, perhaps are writing one of your own and looking for inspiration, this is not a book to miss. The prose is spare, honest, gripping, perfect. By the end of the book, you will feel like you've been on an epic bicycle journey, even if you've never ridden a bike in your life. You will have a new appreciation for those chance encounters in which strangers reveal their humanity and our life stories briefly dovetail with those of others. Anne Winkler-Morey is a historian who never loses sight of the historical moment in which her trip unfolds: working class people struggling to emerge from the 2008 financial crisis amid growing wealth disparities; the East Coast newly devastated by Hurricane Irene; swathes of the Alabama coast destroyed by the BP oil spill; dusty Texas towns kept alive only by the vast machinery of border control. She also writes with a keen sense of how her personal and family history--as a survivor of rape, as the daughter of a refugee--colors her experiences on the road. From socially privileged hosts who put her and her husband up for a night, to homeless people with whom they share campgrounds, Winkler-Morey hears and shares diverse perspectives on this crazy, beautiful country.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a lot of fun reading Anne's book. I started at the beginning, but found that I was so eager to get her take on places I have lived or traveled to that I would skip ahead. Then, I went back and read front to back, including the stories I had read before - taking them in a little more deeply. I loved that she and David balanced each other out in many ways. I loved Anne's raw honesty about ghosts that followed her on the trip, and how, although she learned and experienced many things, she wasn't able to outride them. I was frustrated for her that she rode over 10,000 miles and didn't lose weight (although I can't imagine how strong her legs and core must've been!). I liked the format, with short sections. The historical references taught me an embarrassing amount of detail I hadn't known. And, most importantly, Anne and David made observations about human psychology and sociology that give much hope for our future and the ability for us to find what binds us together as individuals and a nation.

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was very interesting to hear the author's different experiences in different areas of the country. This seems like it was such an amazing trip, and I commend her for completing it. I'm only detracting a star because since there was no "plot", the story dragged at times, but not necessarily in a bad way - there were just times where I had to force myself to keep reading because it was a lull in their trip.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks, Letitia, for passing this book on to me. I love a good bicycle touring book, and this one has a social conscience as well. Also, you are correct that the author has an amazing husband.

[Elizabeth Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne and David’s bicycle journey is firmly rooted in place as they persist through discomforts of the trail from icy downpours to stifling desert heat, to middle-aged bodies struggling to pedal up and down mountainsides. Along the way, they observe each place’s history and political ambience, noting the injustices and contradictions that appear. At times raw, always authentic, the travelers find the heart and humanity of each place through the people they meet. This book reminded me of the work of a favorite author, Tony Horwitz, especially Confederates in the Attic. Highly recommended! In the interest of full disclosure: I have known Anne for more than 50 years and am proud to call her friend; I learned a great deal about her that I never knew before while reading this book.

[Beatrice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Allegiance to Winds and Waters: Bicycling the Political Divides of the United States is an enthralling and thoughtful memoir about what divides and unites us both as people and as a nation. The author chronicles her fourteen-month cycling trip with her husband David around the perimeter of the United States, with a smidge of the Mexican and Canadian borders thrown in for good measure.

After being laid off from her job as a history professor in Minneapolis, the author decides the best way to break out of her post-employment depressive rut is to take a cross-country tour of the US and record the stories of those she meets along the road. From one coast to another, up and down impossibly steep mountain ranges, across swamps and deserts, through storms and sunshine, Anne Winkler-Morey takes readers through all of the best and worst the North American landscape and climate has to offer.

The descriptions of the physical challenges of a middle-aged woman determined to stay the course of such a massive undertaking are captivating enough on their own to earn the respect of readers, but the way Winkler-Morey combines the challenges and traumas of her past with the hardships she faces within herself on the road is dazzling in its scope and humbling in its authenticity.

The author’s journey takes place during the height of the Occupy Wall Street Movement when the long-standing political and cultural divides fueled by racial injustice, income inequality, and pervasive nationalist ideologies were already becoming unavoidably apparent to the general populace. Winkler-Morey takes great care to travel like the historian she is and highlights events of the past and present in communities along her route that call attention to the half-told histories of a nation that often leave out those who are not white, cis-gendered, Christian, or male.

The strangers she meets along the way in the many red and blue states she travels through, along with the “trail angels” who provide respite and kindness when she and David need it the most, provide fascinating individual stories that create a personal brand of cultural context through which to view the political and philosophical divides of the country.

Part Bicycle Diaries, part Our Bodies, Our Bikes, Winkler-Morey’s book is an eye-opening window through which to view a new angle of understanding of the firmly entrenched beliefs that separate us and the deeply moving commonalities unique to us all that give rise to hope for the future.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love that the author and her husband did this ride. And that she wrote and published this book. But as someone who has done a fair bit of bicycle touring and someone who finds the riding almost meditative, and the experience sublime even when difficult - I was disappointed she found the trip so damn hard. Complaints of wind, weather, traffic, geography, infrastructure appear on, like, every other page.

And while I generally agree with her politics, I found the book a bit polemic. While she meets many people, I didn’t get the sense she gained much insight into why people with opposing views to her’s feel that way. For example, they stay with a woman in south Texas who has a large Israeli flag displayed. The author says she chose not to ask about it then tells her readers that many conservative Christians support Israel because … the return of Christ. Okay - so have that conversation and let your host tell you (and us) about the flag. You don’t have to agree. Or argue.

For all that was good in this book, I kinda found an equal amount frustrating. But good on her for doing it and writing it.

[Quintin Reich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a breath of fresh air. At first I savored it, allowing myself only a chapter or two at a time. That proved unsustainable. I could neither put it down nor let it go when finished. Winkler-Morey writes in clear, mindful and poetic prose. Her ability to observe without confrontation those forces that so flagrantly oppose human decency, is a lesson we can all learn from. This book is one to share with all your friends and family. Ride On!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always love a good travel book. Older woman biking around the United States providing commentary and sharing experiences. I wanted to know more about this trip, the book was written after the trip but I'm still curious to know more. How did this experience change her? I think it would be hard to include all the details without writing an epic novel.

[Mark Wald · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is truly inspirational how a middle-aged woman who would not consider herself a cyclist biked around the periphery the United States. Reading about the stories of the people she encountered really gets me thinking about the "other side of the story" when it comes to events that have occurred over time.

[Bob Rapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A captivating depiction of an unlikely bicycle touring couple’s travels. Interesting tidbits about the people they met and their political and cultural contrasts. An easy book to pick up and put down with a short journal type narrative.

[Julia Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating memoir. So interesting to hear perspectives all over the country and inspires an inquisitive spirit in me to uncover forgotten history and stories of everyday people
“The daily practice of seeking comfort in strange places taught me how to be at home inside my skin”

[Grace Becken · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a nice, no brain power necessary book, with a lot of good stuff in it. took me a long time to read it - considering how fast i read typically, but i enjoyed how long i stretched it out for. honest 3.75 stars. anne sounds like a cool lady and i’d love to talk with her sometime

[Cheryl Winter · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF-I made it to Florida with her. I was tired of the restaurant reviews and it got redundant.

[Sherry Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bicycle memoir, Anne Winkler-Morey collects the stories of hundreds of "trail angels" who shared their hearts and homes. Over her fourteen-month bicycle tour, enchanting