Introduction
Views from the boxcar: a historical and theoretical framing of boxcar politics
The cramped boxcar: Jack London and Kelly's industrial army
The polyphonic boxcar: the hobo in Jim Tully's Beggars of life
The radicalized boxcar: hobos, the "speech of the people," and John Dos Passos's U.S.A
The interracial boxcar: Scottsboro, the great Depression, and wild boys of the road
The spiritual boxcar: lostness in on the road and the end of the political hobo
Afterword: the end of boxcar politics.