A Step from the New World to the Old, and Back Again:

A Step From The New World To The Old, And Back Again: Henry P. Tappan. A travel narrative and cultural meditation by the American writer, this volume records Henry P. Tappan’s journey along the Rhine from Rotterdam through Cologne, Düsseldorf, Bonn, Strasbourg, and Basel, and then into Switzerland, with later returns toward Paris and home. The text blends vivid landscape description, notes on urban life, and reflections on politics, religion, and liberty in 19th-century Europe. Tappan recounts steamboat journeys, German social customs, and the grandeur and ruin of medieval sites such as the Rhine castles and Cologne Cathedral, interlacing his observations with critique of despotism, the press, and the prospects for self-government. In Switzerland, he extols Alpine scenery—from the Drachenfels to the Jungfrau—and praises cantonal democracy, public education, and national character, while cautioning about emigration and commercial excess. Throughout, the work fuses travelogue with philosophical and political meditation on liberty, culture, and the responsibilities of citizens in both the Old and the New World.