Four of Britain's cultural figures explore their intellectual, physical and cultural discovery of that ever-changing country, America, from first impressions to today. British-Pakistani writer Kamran Nazeer examines how his idea of America is tied up with law and the inspiration to his younger self of the elderly men and women of the Supreme Court.
States of Mind
Kamran Nazeer
'I look upon North America as the only great nursery of freemen left on the face of the earth.'
Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St Asaph, 1714-88
'Europe is the unfinished negative of which America is the proof'
Philip James Bailey, poet, 1816-1902
'The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children'.
Edward VIII, later the Duke of Windsor, 1894-1972
From C18th clerymen to C20th monarchs via C19th poets, America has excited constant fascination from this side of the Atlantic. The idea of America is as constantly evolving as the country itself.
To coincide with the opening of a new exhibition exploring the first impressions America created on pioneering English travellers in the C16th, BBC Radio 3 invites four cultural figures to examine their first impressions of the country and how these developed into their own personal idea of America.
In the second in the series, Glaswegian writer Kamran Nazeer examines the allure to his twelve year old self of the nine elderly men and women of the U.S. Supreme Court. Recorded on location at the Royal Courts of Justice he argues that these now fallen heroes reveal an interesting difference between English and American attitudes to ideals.
States of Mind coincides with the exhibition A New World: England's First View of America at the British Museum which runs from the 15 March - 17 June 2007.
From the exhibition A New World: England's first view of America at the British Museum.
An Indian werowance, or chief, painted for a great solemn gathering, by John White, c. 1585.
An iconic image of first contact between Europeans and Native Americans.
© The Trustees of British Museum
