ABSTRACT
My first visit to America was in 1896, when there were as yet no motor-cars in the country, and outside the cities the roads were only dirt tracks. In subsequent years I have paid many visits, as lecturer or visiting professor; and from 1938 until last May I lived in the United States, first in Chicago, then in California, and then in the East. I have had innumerable contacts with individuals, almost all of them pleasant, and not a few very delightful; I have had also some contacts with institutions which were decidedly less agreeable. From my impressions, I have come to feel that many things in America are very different from what they are supposed to be. Sometimes the merits of America are not duly appreciated by Americans; sometimes—as happens in every other country—demerits are more readily perceived by foreigners than by those whose perceptions have been blunted by familiarity.
