The Land of Contrasts

A British visitor's impressions of American life give this collection of travel essays its shape. James F. Muirhead draws chiefly on nearly three years spent in the United States while preparing a travel handbook. His work carried him through almost every state and territory, and he uses those encounters to consider social habits, public manners, scenery and the differences between British and American expectations.

The chapters range across women and children, sports, humour, newspapers, literature and city life. In one account, rival election processions in New York and a crowd watching results in Philadelphia become examples of lively political feeling tempered by good humour. Muirhead also compares American comic writers with their English counterparts. His observations offer readers a view of everyday life in the late nineteenth century, together with a British observer's argument for meeting unfamiliar customs with curiosity and a willingness to adjust.