Transatlantic Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century: Anglo-American Relations and Intertwined Identities

by Howard LeRoy Malchow, Thomas Zeiler (Editor)

Overview

Ranging through the long nineteenth century, this book explores the evolving cultural relationship between Britain and the United States during this period. From language, speech and racial attitudes to imaginings of the Western frontier, travel memoirs, the role of theatre and Anglophilia and Anglophobia, it shows how actors on both sides of the Atlantic expressed understanding of themselves and their not-so-foreign Other.

Tracing the ways in which these cultural activities served to imagine, shape, confirm and maintain cultural topographies, it shows how they constructed Anglo-American differences which endure today. It challenges narratives of fixed national identity by emphasising cultural borrowing, hybridity and shifting perspectives in an era of faster, easier transatlantic and American continental travel, and promotes an understanding of how these identities were both entrenched and challenged.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350562639
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/13/2025
Series:	New Approaches to International History
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Howard LeRoy Malchow is Walter S. Dickson Professor of English and American History, Tufts University, USA.

Thomas W. Zeiler is Professor of American Diplomatic History at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Transatlantic World
1. Divided by a Common Language
2. Theatre/Theater
3. Tableaux of Race
4. The Far West: Imagining, Seeing, Performing
5. Transatlantic Birthright: Anglophilia and Anglophobia
Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

In this major re-evaluation of Transatlantic cultural exchange in the long 19th century Malchow traces the evolution of the Anglo-American relationship through studies of language, theatrical performance, race and tourism. Exhaustively researched, the book provides an incisive analysis of the roots of Anglophobia and Anglophilia and of an eventual harmonious rivalry.” —Fred Leventhal, Professor Emeritus of History, Boston University, USA

“Transatlantic Culture is a tour de force study of Anglo-American relations that takes our understanding of the ties that bind to a new level. Through its in-depth analysis of theatre, race, tourism, the American West, and the surprising power of language, this book adds new levels of complexity to a familiar story.” —Giles Scott-Smith, Professor of Transnational Relations and New Diplomatic History, Leiden University, The Netherlands

“Centering Anglo-American cultural relationships across a tumultuous century, Malchow reveals much about Britain and the United States alike. Well-conceived, highly readable, and witty, Trans-Atlantic Culture resonates frequently with the present.” —James Rice, Walter S. Dickson Professor of English and American History, Tufts University, USA

From the Publisher