Driving with Strangers: What Hitchhiking Tells Us About Humanity

Driving with Strangers is a manifesto to alter how we think about our place in the world, exploring the opportunities for cooperation, friendship, sustainability, and openness that hitchhiking represents. It is a panoramic road trip through a century of hitchhiking across different decades, countries, and continents, led by self-styled 'vagabond sociologist' Purkis.

Format: Hardback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 01 February 2022
Publisher: Manchester University Press

In the face of a climate crisis, isolation, and social breakdown, Driving with Strangers emerges as a powerful manifesto that challenges our perception of our place in the world. As a veteran hitchhiker and lifelong enthusiast of hitchhiking culture, author Purkis embarks on a captivating journey through the history of hitchhiking, exploring the remarkable possibilities it presents for cooperation, friendship, sustainability, and openness.

Join Purkis on the roadside, as he ventures into the realm of the traveling song, delves deep into a Russian hitch-hiking expedition, or contemplates the politics of travel and risk along the "Highway of Tears" in British Columbia, Canada. The reader is transported on a sweeping road trip spanning a century of hitchhiking across diverse decades, countries, and continents.

Purkis, affectionately known as a self-styled "vagabond sociologist," serves as the ideal companion for this transformative journey away from isolation, social distancing, closed borders, and into a deeper understanding of why and how strangers can enrich our lives.

Through his captivating storytelling and insightful observations, Purkis invites us to reevaluate our assumptions about the world and embrace the potential for meaningful connections and shared experiences with those we might initially perceive as strangers. Driving with Strangers serves as a timely reminder that amidst the challenges we face, there is always room for empathy, understanding, and the pursuit of a more inclusive and interconnected society.

Weight: 626g
Dimension: 167 x 240 x 34 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781526160041