Run for the Wall

Download or read book Run for the Wall written by Raymond J. Michalowski and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Run for the Wall is a highly readable ethnographic account of this remarkable American ritual. The authors, themselves motorcyclists as well as Run participants, demonstrate that the event is a form of secular pilgrimage. Here key concepts in American culture-- "freedom," and "brotherhood," for example--are constructed and deployed in a variety of rituals and symbols to enable participants to come to terms with the consequences of the Vietnam war. While the focus is the journey itself, the book also explores other themes related to American culture and history, including the nature of community, the Vietnam war, and the creation of American secular ritual.