STEVE JOHNSON recommends a protest album with a harder edge than many in the genre
On the road with Ron Jacobs
JOHN GREEN finds an ideal travelling companion as he works his way from New England to Florida
Miller Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
[Ron Jacobs] 
DENNIS BROE finds much to praise in the new South African Netflix series, but wonders why it feels forced to sell out its heroine
CARL DEATH introduces a new book which explores how African science fiction is addressing climate change
In his second round-up, EWAN CAMERON picks excellent solo shows that deal with Scottishness, Englishness and race as highlights
Fiery words from the Bard in Blackpool and Edinburgh, and Evidence Based Punk Rock from The Protest Family
MATTHEW HAWKINS is mesmerised by a performance that dissolves the line between audience and performer
MATTHEW SHARPE recommends the essays of a Renaissance politician that instruct and unnerve after 400 years
Nowhere Land: Journeys Through a Broken Nation
Ron Jacobs, Fomite, £11.99
I SUPPOSE living in a country as massive as the United States, with its diverse landscapes and people, it is easy to get itchy feet and a wish to set out to explore the essence of a country that is yours but which you know little about. There are also, of course, famous precedents like Jack Kerouac’s On the Road or John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley to mention just two.
Here Ron Jacobs follows their examples, chronicling his journeys from New England to Oregon, Texas to Minnesota and beyond, observing the US as it struggles to remember and redefine itself on its way towards an uncertain future.
During the 1970s and 1980s, as a footloose wage-slavery refusenik and recreational drug user, Jacobs hitchhiked around the USA, absorbing its ambience. In many ways that was a benign era compared with today. Beginning in 2021, he decided to retrace his own footsteps and take the pulse of the nation once again, but this time seeing it through the eyes of a wiser and older traveller.
More from this author
JOHN GREEN recommends an Argentinian film classic on re-release - a deliciously cynical tale of swindling and double-cross
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America
JOHN GREEN is stirred by an ambitious art project that explores solidarity and the shared memory of occupation
JOHN GREEN applauds an excellent and accessible demonstration that the capitalist economy is the biggest threat to our existence
