This text explores the shifting history of European attitudes towards America, utilizing British and French writing from the late 18th century to the middle of the 19th century. Thomas Murphy studies a variety of literary, philosophical and political writing by Europeans in this era. The book covers four stages in the development of European attitudes: traditional theories and their modification in the 18th and 19th centuries; the influence of early American diplomacy on European attitudes; the cultural iconography of the French Revolution and England during this period; and the genre of the travel journal. The book aims to illuminate the readers understanding of the role these texts, and others, about the New World played in the formation of significant social and political developments in modern European history.