The Vagabonds

A ΓÇ£fascinating slice of rarely considered American historyΓÇ¥ (Booklist)ΓÇöthe story of Henry Ford and Thomas EdisonΓÇöwhose annual summer sojourns introduced the road trip to our culture and made the automobile an essential part of modern life. In 1914 Henry Ford and naturalist John Burroughs visited Thomas Edison in Florida and toured the Everglades. The following year Ford,Edisonand tire maker Harvey Firestone joined together on a summer camping trip and decided to call themselves the Vagabonds. They would continue their summer road trips until 1925when they announced that their fame made it too difficult for them to carry on. Although the Vagabonds traveled with an entourage of chefsbutlersand othersthis elite fraternity also had a serious purpose: to examine the conditions of AmericaΓÇÖs roadways and improve the practicality of automobile travel. Cars were unreliable and the roads were even worse. But newspaper coverage of these trips was extensiveand as cars and roads improvedthe summer trip by automobile soon became a desired element of American life. The Vagabonds is ΓÇ£a portrait of AmericaΓÇÖs burgeoning love affair with the automobileΓÇ¥ (NPR) but it also sheds light on the important relationship between the older Edison and the younger Fordwho once worked for the famous inventor. The road trips made the automobile ubiquitous and magnified FordΓÇÖs reputationeven as EdisonΓÇÖs diminished. The automobile would transform the American landscapethe American economyand the American way of life and Guinn brings this seminal moment in history to vivid life.