Travel and World Power: Americans in Europe, 1890-1917
Author(s)
Stephanson, Anders
Abstract
For businessmen, tourists, wealthy women, cultural critics, policymakers, and other well-off Americans between 1890 and the outbreak of World War I, travel to Europe became an increasingly common feature of their personal and professional lives. Most drew on transatlantic travel experiences to promote a more active, and often imperial, role for the U.S. in European and global affairs. Travel thus formed a cultural or ideological foundation for imperialism and increasing U.S. engagement in world affairs around the turn of the century. This essay approaches travel as a cultural phenomenon integral to the ideology and worldview of upper- and middle-class Americans.
