The Atlantic had an article titled Welcome to America, Please Be On Time: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S. It was a little disorienting to read about your own country from the perspective of a foreigner. When you live in a place where you grow up, it doesn't occur to you to...

"One plausible distinction between travel and tourism is that the traveler makes his or her own way, whereas tourists' paths have been beaten into submission long before they go, whether singly or as a group. The elision between the two types has often been a consequence of pocket guides. In the nineteenth century the Thorough...