America and the Americans in 1833-4, by an Emigrant

Book excerpt: America and the Americans - in 1833-4 is a polemical, satirical account of Gooch's purported travels in America, focusing primarily on New York City and its environs. Never previously published, this work adds an original voice to the nineteenth-century debate over the status of the United States as an emerging cultural power. A large part of Widdicombe's achievement is his bringing to light this unjustly neglected author - a storyteller, poet, and perceptive observer who spent his most productive years on the edges of power and public recognition in Georgian and early Victorian England. Widdicombe frames this unique "travelogue" with a short biography of Gooch, extensive textual and historical notes, an essay on Anglo-American travel literature, and a coda: "On the Perils of Oblivion." A key to the value of Gooch's account is its unique arrangement by subject matter: Gooch examines the American legal system, banks, labor; American policy toward Indians and blacks; New York City government and its electoral system, among other topics. The arrangement makes Gooch's satire far more entertaining, substantial, and informative than most travelogues written in the same period. It also allows Gooch to sustain his polemic - an effort to re-orient the British attitude toward the United States and stem the tide of expatriates to its shores. Gooch's remarkable analysis of American life, studded with relevant facts taken from daily headlines, is heightened by mystery: How much, if any, did Gooch actually observe firsthand, and how much, if any, did he shape with the powers of his narrative talent? Widdicombe provides some clues; the reader will be challenged to render the verdict.