by introductions and notes by Robert E. Spiller (1971)
Emerson traveled broadly in England and Scotland in 1833 and again on lecture tour fifteen years later. Drawing on his experiences there as well as his wide reading in British history, he set forth in English Traits his view of the English as a nation. English Traits is a searching and distinctive portrayal of English culture that today offers a revealing perspective on American viewpoints and preoccupations in the mid-nineteenth century. It is notable, too, for revealing an interesting side of Emerson's complex character; here we find Emerson the practical Yankee, analyzing English power, resourcefulness, determination, and materialism.
Flora Lewis
The condition in the mid 1980's of twenty-five European countries: Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, West Germany, Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia.
Robert Macfarlane
"Landmarks is a book about the power of language - 'strong style, single words' - to shape our sense of place. It is both a field guide to the literature the author loves (Nan Shepherd, Roger Deakin and many more), and a 'word-hoard', gathering an astonishing archive of place-terms from old Norse to Anglo-Romani, living Norman to Hebridean Gaelic. Over the book's course, via its chapters, its glossaries and surprise of its postscript - we come to realize that words, well used, are not just a means to describe landscape, but also a way to know it, and to love it"--from publisher.
Terry Pindell
After living for twenty years in a picture-book New England town envied for its autumn maples and Currier-and-Ives snowfalls, Terry Pindell sensed something missing in his community and set out to find it. A Good Place to Live is his exploration of place and community in a nation where people have never stopped moving in their efforts to discover and create the two. Pindell embarks on the journey we all would like to take, identifying sixteen of his favorite places and speaking with fellow migrants and city planners about creating a good place to live. He looks at the void so common in Anyplace, U.S.A. - a lack of the kind of gathering places other societies are built around - finds home seekers who have realized they don't have to choose between natural and cultural amenities; and describes those people who are engineering the re-creation of communities with a heart, a focal point, and a strong, unique, often idiosyncratic sense of place. Against a not-so-settled national backdrop, Pindell discovers people who convince him that they have found and nurtured a good place to live.
Jeremy Black
"In this innovative study of the Grand Tour, Jeremy Black relies on archival sources to provide an exploration of the real tourist experience rather than, as with the majority of studies of the Grand Tour, an account that is essentially based on travel literature. While sensitive to wider cultural dimensions, the author demonstrates his interest in the experience of tourists, particularly the circumstances they encountered, and the impact of the Grand Tour on British society. Black conjures up a vivid account of the pleasures and predicaments experienced by tourists. He also asks about the impact of tourism on Britain and locates foreign travel in the tension between cosmopolitanism and xenophobia in British culture and society. The book closes with the impact of the French Revolution on tourism."--BOOK JACKET.