Unspeakable Awfulness - America Through the Eyes of European Travelers, 1865-1900 (Electronic book text)

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 OCyGrand TourOCO 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 travellers 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 the OCyAmerican characterOCO continue to echo today, and create a full portrait of late-nineteenth century America as seen through the eyes of its visitors.

Including vivid travellersOCO tales and plentiful illustrations, "Unspeakable Awfulness" is a rich resource that will be useful to students and appeal to anyone interested in travel history and narratives."