Running on Empty: Along an Epic 12,000-Mile Road Trip America Has Its Say on Economic Inequality

by Peter H. Michael

In vivid descriptive style, prize-winning author Peter H. Michael re-counts his classic 12,000-mile road trip taking in the expansive vari-ety of people and places of the United States. Michael set out not to fathom the country "in search of America" as Steinbeck, Kerouac and Least Heat-Moon had but to let America tell him whatever it might.

Tell it did. Ranch hands, cave guides, linemen, nurses, executives, teachers, trailer park pensioners, a decathlete, couples with upside-down mortgages, the poorest county, the wealthiest county, whites, blacks, Indians, Hispanics and Asians all sing verses of the same song: widening economic disparity.

Michael listens to Americans finally awakening to the income and wealth gaps which over the past generation have eroded the middle class and hit the poor hardest of all. Using his eco-nomics and demography expertise in clear punchy style, he demolishes plutocrat arguments in an eminently readable exposé on economic inequality and how the rich and corporations purchase it through the protection money called campaign contributions.

Along the long American road, those met gently speak their minds as the author and his wife are feted by uniquely American vignettes, personal stories, yesteryear small towns and local history while the continent's majestic geography unfolds each day—a mysterious desert amidst Great Plains grasslands, the middle of Lake Michigan, Yellowstone splendor, hushed redwood groves, languid riverside campsites, red rock Great Basin vistas, the High Sierra, desert ghost towns, an inland delta, the longest cave, Lincoln's chair, Faulkner's study and much more.

Genres: Nonfiction

374 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 2014

About the author

Peter H. Michael is most recently the author of Running on Empty: Along an Epic 12,000-Mile Road Trip America Has Its Say on Economic Inequality, his seventh book. Running on Empty was awarded two 2015 national book prizes, one in travel essays, the other in political and economic affairs. He also writes newspaper, magazine and op-ed articles. Michael serves as publisher of Underground Railroad Free Press, the nation's top Underground Railroad news publication, and of Free Press Books.

Peter Michael was educated at the University of Maryland, Berkeley and Princeton, and is the seventh generation of his family to reside at Maryland's Cooling Springs Farm, a national Underground Railroad historic site founded by the family in 1768.

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and his open perspectives, his search for stories, and a broader view of history and his appreciation for listening to all sorts of Americans he and his wife met on their travels. I made several notes of places to visit that I hope I can make it to - probably when I too am retired

[Peter Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Says literary critic Ronald Primeau, "I could not put the book down. Michael listens to Americans better than anyone since Whitman, Steinbeck, or Moyers and explains brilliantly what he hears. Running on Empty is a monumentally significant work appearing at the perfect time, as clear a delineation of income disparity as I have seen anywhere."

Kirkus Reviews calls Running on Empty " . . . a charming blend of Whitman’s maximalism, Kerouac’s enthusiasm and Least Heat-Moon’s earthy anthropology. Michael finds an original voice in observing what he sees as the great American problem of the 21st century: the daunting wealth gap."

Other reviewers praise Running on Empty as "Brilliant," "Beautifully written and a joy to read," "America seen through mature eyes," and "Lucid and persuasive."