Inventing the Holy Land

This book presents a historical study of the phenomenon of Holy Land tourism among American Protestants during the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. During this period, overseas travel was newly available to the Protestant middle class due to the invention and steady popularization of steamship travel. Protestants 'at home' in America consumed vast quantities of printed literature via the popular medium of Holy Land pilgrimage narratives. A new mental geograp