The stray shopping carts of Eastern North America

a guide to field identification

by Montague, Julian

Chicago · The University of Chicago Press · 2023

"Abandoned shopping carts are everywhere, and yet we know so little about them. Their complexity and history baffles even the most careful urban explorer. How can we understand abandoned carts without a comprehensive and well-documented taxonomy? Spanning the categories of Damaged, Fragment, Plaza Drift, Bus Stop Discard, Plow Crush, and 28 more, Julian Montague's incomparable classification and documentation of this ubiquitous feature of the urban landscape helps us see the natural and man-made worlds-and perhaps even ourselves-anew. Back in print, refreshed, and expanded, Montague's book, both rigorous and absurd, is a strangely compelling tonic no one has ever asked for but that few can do without"--