SOURCE: Hunter, Shelagh. “Social Criticism.” In Harriet Martineau: The Poetics of Moralism, pp. 148-94. Aldershot, Eng.: Scolar Press, 1995.

In the following excerpt, Hunter discusses Martineau's social criticism, including Society in America.

Landscape and Politics: Society in America

Society in America is Harriet Martineau's most extensive and sustained social criticism. A three-volume survey of the politics, economy, civilization and religion of America, it is based on the observations of a visit lasting two years, from September 1834 to August 1836. They were crowded years. She went as far south as New Orleans, west to Cincinnati and Chicago, and north to Lake Michigan, by stage, horseback, boat and train. Well-known in America for her writing and with the usual traveller's letters of introduction, she was the guest of ministers and statesmen in New York, Washington and other big cities. She went to parties, meetings, commencements, services, weddings, funerals, parades and picnics. She...