My book, Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate: an Economist's Travelogue, has just been published by Monthly Review Press. Here is what labor journalist and photographer David Bacon says about it:
"Armed with a van and hot plate, Michael Yates and his wife Karen set off to do what many of us have dreamed .... Their journey combines acute observations and politics—from the pleasure of breathtaking sights to a program for reversing the privatization of our national parks and forests. Yates' travelogue/critique ranges from the political economy of California's agricultural valleys, where migrant workers pick our food, to an account of the job market in Portland. This is a great book—a road story for radicals. It makes you itch to hit the road."—David Bacon, photographer and author of Communities Without Borders
The book can be ordered by calling 1-800-670-9499 or at your local bookstores.
Karen and I will soon be hitting the road again, living in cheap motels and cooking on our hot plate, doing a radical version of a book tour. If you know a bookstore, radio station, college, etc. that might be interested in a talk, reading, or interview, contact either me or Renee Pendergrass at Monthly Review. Her email is renee at monthlyreview.org.
Here is our itinerary:
Now til mid-May: anywhere in Arizona. Mid-May til mid-June: West from Tucson to San Diego and up the west coast to Seattle Mid-June to mid-July: East from Seattle to eastern Washington, into Montana, south to Wyoming and Utah, then east to Denver area. Mid-July til mid-August: South into New Mexico, then east through Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, then north to Wisconsin, then east to Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and DC. After mid-August: New England, teaching at UMass.