Hail Columbia

Excerpt from Hail Columbia: Random Impressions of a Conservative English Radical
When a stranger, visiting a foreign country, devotes to his journey less than six months, and when he then writes a book upon that country, he feels inclined to apologize to its citizens. It is not that he doubts his own ability to understand what he has seen, nor that he is uncertain in the judgments which arise therefrom; if he has for himself the respect that a respectable man deserves, he must believe that he has written a worthy book. Only, after a short visit, he must tell himself that a great deal must have escaped him. I, who visited a considerable portion of the United States, cannot help thinking: "You went from Maine to Nebraska, from New York to Georgia, from Georgia to Texas, Kansas, Illinois. You know something of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Indiana... but what of Wyoming and Colorado? and you didn't stay long in Virginia. And Seattle looks awfully exciting on the map." That's the trouble. One wonders whether one's opinions would not have been varied by more extended experience. One feels presumptuous; one tells oneself that one cannot condense within those few months the necessary experience, and especially the necessary repose, which would make it possible to arrive at balanced judgments.
That is not quite my state of mind as I lay these chapters before the American public.
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