Jonathan Purkis

Driving with strangers (eBook, ePUB)

What hitchhiking tells us about humanity

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

At a time of climate crisis, isolation and social breakdown, Driving with strangers is a manifesto to alter how we think about our place in the world. Veteran hitchhiker and lifelong aficionado of hitchhiking culture, Purkis journeys through the history of hitchhiking to explore the unique opportunities for cooperation, friendship, sustainability and openness that it represents. Join Purkis on the kerbside, in search of Woody Guthrie as he examines the politics of the travelling song, deep on a Russian hitch-hiking expedition, or considering the politics of travel and risk on the 'Highway of Tears' in British Columbia, Canada. The reader is taken on a panoramic road trip through a century of hitchhiking across different decades, countries and continents. Purkis, a self-styled 'vagabond sociologist', is the perfect passenger to accompany you on a journey away from isolation, social distancing, closed borders and into a better understanding of why and how strangers can enrich our lives.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Princeton University Press
• Seitenzahl: 312
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Februar 2022
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781526160034
• Artikelnr.: 63378210

Autorenporträt

Jonathan Purkis is a writer, independent academic and musician. He grew up in Hull, studied and later taught sociology at several English universities, and has published many works on environmental protest and anarchism. Since 1982, he's covered 40,198 miles by thumb and travelled with 1309 total strangers. He's hitched with his border collie, a guitar, two ice axes and half a drum kit (although not at the same time).

Inhaltsangabe

Prologue: A Romantic, gallant and even brilliant adventure1 The intention of a tradition: Definitions of hitchhiking 2 How to think like a hitchhiker: An introduction to vagabond sociology3 In search of Woody Guthrie: Singing the politics of hitchhiking4 Maybe we will meet a nice person: Hitchhiking, conflict, human nature5 The great European adventure trail: Hitchhiking as a measure of freedom6 The Alaska Highway hitchhikers visitors book: The personality of the extreme hitchhiker7 The power of the gift without return: Hitchhiking as economic allegory8 The myth of the great decline: Hitchhiking and the increasing levels of trust in the world9 Climatic dangers: Hitchhiking and the relative realities of risk10 Good news from Vilnius: The rich life of hitchhiking in former communist countries11 A prescription for hitchhiking? Travel and talk in the age of pandemics and extinctionAfterword: The bookcase at the end of the road Acknowledgments: A hitchhikers guide to the journeyNotesBibliography