Driving with Strangers : What Hitchhiking Tells Us About Humanity (Hardcover)

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