Travels in the United States

In the 20th century, Americans hit the road in record numbers, exploring the country they called home.  Some of these works became iconic, like Jack Kerouac’s semi-fictional On the Road and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.  Others, like Bill Bryson’s The Lost Continent, are humorous accounts of American life.  Visitors to America, such as D.H. Lawrence and Simone de Beauvoir, commented on American society as they traveled throughout the country.  These cases display a variety of works that deal with 20th century American life and landscapes through travel narratives.

America in the 19th and early 20th centuries was a center of growth, change, and increasing industrialization.  Travelers from Europe often commented on American society and customs, the beauty of the landscape, and the problems in the United States. Visitors went about the country by horseback, steamships, and trains as modes of transportation changed over the course of the 19th century.  In the years following the Civil War, travelers noted racial tensions as a result of the abolishment of slavery, and continued regional differences between the North and the South.  The westward expansion of the country was a topic in many travel narratives, as people explored newly opened lands.  These cases offer a taste of some of the travelogues printed about the United States in the 19th century.

Travels in the United States