Poultney Bigelow - Paddles and Politics down the Danube - 1892

Poultney Bigelow - Paddles and Politics down the Danube - New York, Charles L. Webster, 1892 - 253 pages - 18.5 x 13 cm

The book describes Bigelow's journey by boat on the Danube, one of Europe's major rivers.
In addition to travel impressions and descriptions of landscapes and cities, he discusses the political situation in Central and Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th century.
Bigelow weaves personal observations with broader themes such as:
The role of the Danube as a trade and cultural artery.
National tensions in the Habsburg Empire and the Balkans.
- A critical perspective on diplomacy and international relations.

Poultney Bigelow is an American journalist and author, son of the diplomat John Bigelow.
He studied in Germany and had a lifelong fascination with European politics and culture.
Bigelow wrote numerous books and articles on international relations, travel, and colonial issues.
His style combined travel reportage with political analysis, often sharp and sometimes controversial.

The work is a unique combination of travel narrative and political commentary, typical of Bigelow’s writing style.
It provides a historical perspective of Europe around 1890, in which the Danube served as a symbol of both connection and conflict.
For historians and literature researchers, it is a source about how Americans viewed Europe in the late 19th century.