This book offers a full length history of how americans have vacationed in the early 19th century it shows that vacations were taken for health more than for fun as the wealthy traveled to watering places seeking cures for everything from consumption to rheumatism but starting in the 1850s the growth of a white collar middle class and the expansion of railroads made vacationing a . In working at play aron offers the first full length history of how americ indeed as cindy aron reveals in this intriguing account the american vacation has seen a constant tension between labor and leisure especially in the 19th and early 20th century when we often struggled to protect ourselves from the sin of idleness. In working at play cindy aron offers the first full length history of how americans have vacationed from eighteenth century planters who summered in newport to twentieth century urban workers who headed for camps in the hills in the early nineteenth century vacations were taken for health more than for fun as the wealthy traveled to watering places seeking cures for everything from . In working at play cindy aron offers the first full length history of how americans have vacationed from eighteenth century planters who summered in newport to twentieth century urban workers who headed for camps in the hillsin the early nineteenth century vacations were taken for health more than for fun as the wealthy traveled to watering places seeking cures for everything from . Working at play a history of vacations in the united states working at play a history of vacations in the united states author editors aron cindy publication location press oxford university press library of congress number e161a75 1999 publication status available study area performance studies keywords social history health self improvement isbn 13 9780195142341