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In 1921, the great essayist G. K. Chesterton embarked on a lecture tour of America. Stepping from the boat in New York, Chesterton was still grieving the loss of his brother, yet soon the industry and ideologies of the US would strike inspiration in Chesterton and produce a creative outpouring now assembled into this collection of essays.

‘What I saw in America’ charts the English writer’s impressions of American idealism: on democracy and freedom, but also capitalism, prohibition, and slavery.

Chesterton captures the essence of 1920s America and sets it against his own English sensibilities, giving readers an extraordinary glimpse into the history of these two sovereign nations.



Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 – 1936) was an English writer, journalist, philosopher, and literary critic. An unparalleled essayist, he produced over four thousand essays during his lifetime, alongside eighty novels and two hundred short stories.

Tackling topics of politics, history, philosophy, and theology with tenacious wit and humour, G. K. Chesterton was often considered a master of the paradox. Himself both a modernist and devout Catholic, he is remembered best for his priest-detective short stories ‘Father Brown’, and his metaphysical thriller ‘The Man Who Was Thursday’.

In his lifetime, Chesterton befriended and debated some of the greatest thinkers of the age, such as George Bernard Shore, H. G. Wells, and Bertrand Russell, while his works went on to inspire figures including T. S. Eliot, Michael Collins, and Mahatma Gandhi.