American Traits: From the Point of View of a German

Excerpt from American Traits: From the Point of View of a German

The following essays are not scholarly studies, but light sketches drawn in leisure hours by a German who has pitched his tent among the Americans and become interested in the differ ences between the Americans and the Germans. But my interest in that contrast is not merely a theoretical one I believe that these two nations can and ought to learn from each other, and that in this case even the protectionists of national civilization ought not to favor a prohibitive tariff on foreign ideals. Such mutual instruction has been hindered by prejudices and misunderstand ings: the two nations do not know each other sufficiently, although they are connected by in numerable ties from the past and will need each other's good will still more in the years to come. To root out such prejudices and to facilitate mu tual benefit, it becomes a duty to measure critically the culture of the one country by the ideals of the other.

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