Driving with strangers: What hitchhiking tells us about humanity

· Manchester University Press
Ebook
312
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About this ebook

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.
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 opport...

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About the author

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).
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...

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