Retrospect of Western Travel

Harriet Martineau, Writer, Translator, Philosopher, Socialist, Economist. Harriet Martineau was born in 1802 in Norwich, England. She was given a good education for a woman of her day and began writing professionally in 1822, starting as a newspaper reporter. She became a successful writer and was able to finance a two–year journey to the USA from 1834 to 1836. She described the first part of her journey in Volume 1 of Retrospect of Western Travel. Rejecting all prejudices, she had the courage to rely on her own experience and express unpopular opinions. For example, she credited her cure from a long and severe illness in 1845 to Mesmerism, an unrecognized method of alternative medicine which she defended from then on. She criticized religious dogmatism after having traveled to Egypt and Palestine. She supported the abolitionist movement and fought for women’s rights until her death in 1876.