Unspeakable awfulness : America through the eyes of European travelers, 1865-1900 / Kenneth D. Rose.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rose, Kenneth D. (Kenneth David), 1946-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Description and travel.

United States.

United States--Foreign public opinion, European.

Travelers' writings, European.

United States--Social life and customs--1865-1918.

Manners and customs.

Physical Description:

xiii, 288 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2014.

Summary:

The late nineteenth century was a golden age for European travel in the United States. For prosperous Europeans, a journey to America was a fresh alternative to the more familiar 'Grand Tour' of their own continent, promising encounters with a vast, wild landscape, and with people whose culture was similar enough to their own to be intelligible, yet different enough to be interesting. Their observations of America and its inhabitants provide a striking lens on this era of American history, and a fascinating glimpse into how the people of the past perceived one another. In Unspeakable Awfulness, Kenneth D. Rose gathers together a broad selection of the observations made by European travelers to the United States. European visitors remarked upon what they saw as a distinctly American approach to everything from class, politics, and race to language, food, and advertising. Their assessments of this 'American character' continue to echo today, and create a full portrait of late-nineteenth century America as seen through the eyes of its visitors. Including vivid travelers' tales and plentiful illustrations, Unspeakable Awfulness is a rich resource that will be useful to students and appeal to anyone interested in travel history. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: America the Awful and the European Traveler

Character, Class, Dress, Money, and Advertising

The Built Environment: Cities and Boosterism, Accommodations and Transportation

Culture: Aesthetics, Music, Language, Humor, Copyright and Journalism

Personal Habits: Dining, Drinking, Tobacco Chewing, and Gun Use

Domestic Relations: Women, Men, and Children and Their Education

Race, Immigration, and Religion

War, Politics, and Patriotism

The West: Landscape, Human Inhabitants, and Decline

Afterword.

Notes:

"Simultaneously published in the UK"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-275) and index.

ISBN:

9780415817646

0415817641

9780415817653

041581765X

OCLC:

826123085