--- title: America’s Newest, Oldest Nomads description: In the mythology of the American Dream, retirement is supposed to be synonymous with leisure. Not so for the tens of thousands of Americans whose... canonical: https://time.com/4941011/nomadland-surviving-america-in-the-twenty-first-century-review/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-14T10:09:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:25:09.806Z article:section: Ideas og:title: America’s Newest, Oldest Nomads og:description: In the mythology of the American Dream, retirement is supposed to be synonymous with leisure. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Sep 14, 2017 10:09 AM UTC  W.W. Norton & Company by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Sep 14, 2017 10:09 AM UTC In the mythology of the American Dream, retirement is supposed to be synonymous with leisure. Not so for the tens of thousands of Americans whose safety nets were decimated after the 2008 recession; in order to find work, many of them are leaving their homes and hitting the road in RVs, trailers and other makeshift mobile dwellings. Journalist Jessica Bruder profiles this cohort in her new book _Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century_. In many ways, she explains, their existence resembles those who fled the Dust Bowl in the Great Depression. To make ends meet, these formerly middle-class senior citizens take seasonal jobs as sugar-beet harvesters, Amazon warehouse workers and campground maintenance employees, moving on whenever a job dries up. “There is hope on the road,” Bruder writes. Of course, hope alone can’t trump the realities of aging. 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