America and the Americans- In 1833-1834 - by Richard Gooch (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Gooch examines the American legal system, banks, labor; American policy toward Native Americans and blacks; he includes a condemnation of New York City government and its electoral process, among other topics.

From the Back Cover

America and the Americans - in 1833-4 is a polemical, satirical account of Gooch's purported travels in America, focusing primarily on New York City and its environs. Never previously published, this work adds an original voice to the nineteenth-century debate over the status of the United States as an emerging cultural power. A large part of Widdicombe's achievement is his bringing to light this unjustly neglected author - a storyteller, poet, and perceptive observer who spent his most productive years on the edges of power and public recognition in Georgian and early Victorian England. Widdicombe frames this unique "travelogue" with a short biography of Gooch, extensive textual and historical notes, an essay on Anglo-American travel literature, and a coda: "On the Perils of Oblivion". A key to the value of Gooch's account is its unique arrangement by subject matter: Gooch examines the American legal system, banks, labor; American policy toward Indians and blacks; New York City government and its electoral system, among other topics. The arrangement makes Gooch's satire far more entertaining, substantial, and informative than most travelogues written in the same period. It also allows Gooch to sustain his polemic - an effort to re-orient the British attitude toward the United States and stem the tide of expatriates to its shores. Gooch's remarkable analysis of American life, studded with relevant facts taken from daily headlines, is heightened by mystery: How much, if any, did Gooch actually observe firsthand, and how much, if any, did he shape with the powers of his narrative talent? Widdicombe provides some clues; the reader will be challenged to render the verdict.

Review Quotes

Gooch's acerbic account of his alleged sojourn in America should be read less as a travelogue than as a polemic against American life and customs, written to dissuade would-be English emigrants from crossing the Atlantic. Arranged by subject and based on both personal observations and newspaper stories, Gooch's account ridicules aspects of US life ranging from courtship customs to working conditions, from the electoral process to religious practices. Railing against slavery, corruption at the ballot box, treatment of the poor, and other injustices, Gooch decries "Republican America." In a well-researched introduction, Widdicombe sets the account in historical context, providing a useful biography of Gooch, as well as evidence casting doubt on whether Gooch actually visited the US at all. Even with its veracity in doubt, Gooch's account is still a highly readable, clever example of a segment of Tory opinion on America, and of what Widdicombe calls a "unique effort to reorient the British attitude to the United States at the dawn of the Victorian Age." General readers, lower-division undergraduates.-- "--Choice"

"Widdicombe's scholarly apparatus shows brilliance and dedicated labor."-- "--Journal of the American Studies Association of Texas"