Amazon.com description: Product Description: American Notes for General Circulation is a travelogue by Charles Dickens detailing his trip to North America from January to June, 1842. Whilst there he acted as a critical observer of North American society, almost as if returning a status report on their progress. This can be compared to the style of his Pictures from Italy written four years later, where he wrote far more like a tourist. His American journey was also an inspiration for his novel Martin Chuzzlewit. Having arrived in Boston, he visited Lowell, New York, and Philadelphia, and travelled as far south as Richmond, as far west as St. Louis and as far north as Quebec. The American city he liked best was Boston – ”the air was so clear, the houses were so bright and gay. The city is a beautiful one, and cannot fail, I should imagine, to impress all strangers very favourably.” Further, it was close to the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind where Dickens encountered Laura Bridgman, who impressed him greatly. Throughout the narrative, finding much to admire in Americans he met and in their way of life, he also notes what he sees as their faults, sometimes jocularly. Then, in a conclusion, he gives his considered analysis of what he views as major flaws in US society. First and most serious is slavery. Apart from its corruption of both whites and blacks in slave states, the free states are complicit in the system. In particular, he is horrified by the physical violence vented on both male and female slaves. Next, he places violence. The ideals of liberty and equality seem to include the freedom to shoot or knife any other American. Third, he cites what he calls universal distrust, the extreme individualism that leads people to suspect others and to seek advantage over them. With a few exceptions, the scandal-seeking press contributes by undermining private life and destroying confidence in public life.