America was a source of fascination to Europeans arriving there during the course of the nineteenth century. At first glance, the New World was very similar to the societies they left behind in their native countries, but in many aspects of politics, culture, and society, the American experience was vastly different--almost unrecognizably so--from Old World Europe. Europeans were astounded that America could survive without a monarch, a standing army, and the hierarchical society which still dominated Europe. Many prominent visitors to the United States recorded their responses to this...