The Land of the Future: British Accounts of the USA at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century.

Seed, D ORCID: 0000-0002-7726-6144 (2016) The Land of the Future: British Accounts of the USA at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century. European Journal of American Studies, 11 (2).

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Abstract

This article examines the ways in which British travelers to the USA at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries articulated their different perceptions of a nation which was emerging as a major imperial competitor. Characteristically these responses showed an ambivalent tension between respect for the growing commercial energy of the USA and a suspicion that it was posing an increasing threat to British national self-perception. Works examined here include those which attempt to yoke together the two nations in a common "Anglo-Saxon" destiny. The essay analyzes the expressive means used by writers to depict the USA as a culture of the future. The discussion includes famous figures like Rudyard Kipling and H.G. Wells, but also covers a range of turn-of-the-century speculative writers like the journalist W.T. Stead.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Edward Bulwer-Lytton, H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, speculative fiction, travel writing, W.T. Stead
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	28 Sep 2016 08:06
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 07:30
DOI:	10.4000/ejas.11536
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3003166