'Prairie Fever – British Aristocrats in the American West 1830 – 1890' by Peter Pagnamenta
As a Brit now living in America, I found this book about the arrogance of my ancestors who immigrated to the United States was laugh-out-loud funny. It's a well-written, well-researched book about British aristocrats who felt the pull of the American prairies in the mid to late 19th century. First they went there to hunt, and killed off thousands of head of bison purely for sport when others needed the animals for food, clothing and shelter. Then they tried to set up British communities of the wealthy, and, due to a fatal combination of ego and ignorance, chose their spots badly. The communities failed. Undaunted, they bought up hundreds of head of cattle and tried to acquire vast tracts of land for ranches or to manage as absentee landlords (just as many of them had already done, with dire results, in Ireland). By 1890, the British aristocracy had had enough of America and were looking to Canada, South Africa, Australia and Thailand (then Siam) for overseas investment opportunities. America was best left to the Americans, they thought. This book is full of highly memorable quotations used to illustrate just what the British aristocracy thought of themselves and of Americans, and vice versa. It amply illustrates not only that the Americans and British are a different peoples, but also that they truly don't even speak the same language.
by Peter Pagnamenta
As a Brit now living in America, I found this book about the arrogance of my ancestors who immigrated to the United States was laugh-out-loud funny. It's a well-written, well-researched book about British aristocrats who felt the pull of the American prairies in the mid to late 19th century. First they went there to hunt, and killed off thousands of head of bison purely for sport when others needed the animals for food, clothing and shelter. Then they tried to set up British communities of the wealthy, and, due to a fatal combination of ego and ignorance, chose their spots badly. The communities failed. Undaunted, they bought up hundreds of head of cattle and tried to acquire vast tracts of land for ranches or to manage as absentee landlords (just as many of them had already done, with dire results, in Ireland). By 1890, the British aristocracy had had enough of America and were looking to Canada, South Africa, Australia and Thailand (then Siam) for overseas investment opportunities. America was best left to the Americans, they thought.
This book is full of highly memorable quotations used to illustrate just what the British aristocracy thought of themselves and of Americans, and vice versa. It amply illustrates not only that the Americans and British are a different peoples, but also that they truly don't even speak the same language.