Title: Unspeakable awfulness : America through the eyes of European travelers, 1865-1900 /
Authors: Rose, Kenneth D. 1946-
Year: 2014
Subjects: Travelers' writings, European.; United States Description and travel.; United States Foreign public opinion, European.; United States Social life and customs
Abstract: "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 travellers' tales and plentiful illustrations, Unspeakable Awfulness is a rich resource that will be useful to students and appeal to anyone interested in travel history."--page [4] of cover.
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.