Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

by Jessica Bruder

I saw a similar “no whiners” sentiment in Workamper News, a bimonthly magazine that targets nomads. “Do you need an attitude adjustment?” asked one headline. The column below it urged unhappy workampers with on-the-job problems to seek solutions by turning inward. “See if you can change your attitude and not let it get to you by soothing yourself with some of these statements,” the writer suggested. “ ‘We won’t be here forever. It’s a means to an end. We’re getting to travel, spend time in this area exploring (or visiting family), and living our dream.’” That pep talk was surreal, but not entirely surprising. Positive thinking, after all, is an all-American coping mechanism, practically a national pastime. Author James Rorty noted this during the Great Depression, when he traveled America talking with people forced to seek work on the road. In his 1936 book, Where Life Is Better, he was dismayed that so many of his interview subjects seemed so unshakably cheerful. “I encountered nothing in 15,000 miles of travel that disgusted and appalled me so much as this American addiction to make-believe,” he wrote.