Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811-1888), Argentine educator, statesman, and writer, self-educated after the model of Benjamin Franklin, was "not a man but a nation," in the words of Mrs. Horace Mann. Like De Tocqueville, this remarkable man visited the United States in its early years and wrote a detailed account of this new phenomenon.
Full of shrewd social commentary and unique vignettes of the America of this period-of Boston, for instance, where Sarmiento met the Horace Manns and later Emerson and Longfellow-"Travels" should take its place among the important commentaries on the United States written during the last century by foreign visitors. Professor Rockland's introductory essay provides the broader context in which "Travels" must be seen: its place in Sarmiento's life and career and its importance as testimony to forgotten lines of influence between North and South America.
