The Boston Cosmopolitans: International Travel and American Arts and Letters

Rennella's readings of Howells's Venetian Life (1866) and Henry James's Italian Hours (1909) help us understand both men's admiration for the linguistic, social, and artistic variety of the European scene, while the related discussion of William James's Varieties of Religiou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of American history (Bloomington, Ind.) Ind.), 2008, Vol.95 (3), p.870-871
Main Author: Stowe, William W.
Format: Review
Language:English
Subjects:
Appiah, Kwame Anthony
Cosmopolitanism
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)
Howells, William Dean (1837-1920)
Italian language
Olmsted, Frederick Law (1822-1903)
Richardson, Charles
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Summary:Rennella's readings of Howells's Venetian Life (1866) and Henry James's Italian Hours (1909) help us understand both men's admiration for the linguistic, social, and artistic variety of the European scene, while the related discussion of William James's Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) demonstrates that text's cosmopolitan roots and implications. The chapter on architecture as an art form that relies on travel for its models and that imitates travel in the experiences it provides is perhaps the strongest in the book, going beyond the obvious imitative cosmopolitanism of Trinity Church, Fenway Court, and the Boston Public Library to make an argument about the democratic cosmopolitanism that underlies their conception as public spaces.
ISSN:0021-8723
1936-0967
1945-2314
DOI:10.2307/27694460