erry Cassel has traveled thousands of miles across North America and Europe, at times working odd jobs and living off the land. He has sung and played his guitar for a room for the night, or just whiskey and a meal, and knows the folks on the ground in every state and Canadian province.

His passion for this land is like a Woody Guthrie folk song.

He doesn't see America in terms of red and blue states, or as an imperialist world power, but as communities of people with simple, personal interests that transcend politics.

When Cassel hitchhiked throughout Europe, he spent time in the cities and the countryside, talking, living and working with the people. Startlingly inept in four European languages, he has nevertheless noted the profound native reactions to visitors, tourists, immigrants and businesspeople in places as exotic as Andorra, Istanbul and Oklahoma. Like an American Alexis de Toqueville, Cassel brings a uniquely American approach to observing the political, social and religious attitudes encountered abroad.