The Cambridge Companion to American Travel Writing

Alfred Bendixen is Professor of English at Texas A & M University. Judith Hamera is Professor and Head of the Department of Performance Studies at Texas A & M University.

• Chronology; Introduction: new worlds and old lands: the travel book and the construction of American identity Judith Hamera and Alfred Bendixen; Part I. Confronting the American Landscape: 1. Beginnings: the origins of American travel writing in the Pre-Revolutionary period Philip Gould; 2. Landscape and American travel writing William W. Stowe; 3. New York to Niagara by way of the Hudson and the Erie Christopher Mulvey; 4. The Mississippi river as site and symbol Thomas Ruys Smith; 5. The Southwest and travel writing Martin Padget; Part II. Americans Abroad: 6. American travel books about Europe before the Civil War Alfred Bendixen; 7. Americans in Europe: Henry James to the present William Merrill Decker; 8. Americans in the Holy Land, Israel and Palestine Hilton Obenzinger; 9. Americans in the larger world: beyond the Pacific coast Christopher McBride; 10. South of the border: American travel writing in Latin America Terry Caesar; Part III. Social Scenes and American Sites: 11. African American travel literature Virginia Whatley Smith; 12. American women and travel writing Susan L. Roberson; 13. Driving that highway to consciousness: late twentieth-century American travel literature Deborah Paes de Barros; Guide to further reading; Index.

'This is a stimulating and informative work that covers much new ground: it has certainly got me thinking and I now have a long list of titles to seek out. Apart from the book's value to literature and travel studies, students of North American history will also find this book useful.' Bob Duckett, bibliographer and former reference librarian, Bradford, UK