Description
Two weeks after the execution of John Brown, Salomon de Rothschild, a younger son of the French branch of the famous banking family, wrote home his first bemused observations of America. Until his departure for France shortly after the beginning of hostilities he continued to record his views -- occasionally respectful, nearly always mocking, often perceptive -- of the United States on the brink of civil war. What the Americans do and fail to do, how they behave and misbehave -- this is what caught Rothschild's eye.
While he was greatly interested in American politics and international trade, he reserved his finest sallies for social customs -- clothes and fashions, eating habits, courtship, life among the nouveaux riches at Newport and Saratoga, the manners of the most Irish poor. As a member of the most famous Jewish family in the world, Rothschild noted with interest the position of Jews in America.
The year 1860 saw the turbulent political conventions and the election, the first international prize fight, the visit of the future Edward VII, the arrival of the first official Japanese embassy, and the maiden voyage of the Great Eastern, the largest ship that had ever been built. Rothschild's supercilious eye seemed to miss nothing of importance or interest.
Many of these letters are published for the first time, and others have previously been available only in excerpt form.
Mr. Diamond is Associate Professor of Historical Sociology at Columbia University.
This is a reproduction edition from a scanned copy of the following original edition:
Title A casual view of America: the home letters of Salomon de Rothschild, 1859-1861
Authors Salomon de Rothschild, Sigmund Diamond
Publisher Stanford University Press, 1961
Original from the University of Michigan
Digitized Sep 16, 2008
Length 136 pages
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