Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation

Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American NationFrom the bestselling author of The Invention of Nature, a fascinating look at the Founding Fathers like none you've seen before. For the Founding Fathers, gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions: a conjoined interest as deeply ingrained in their characters as the battle for liberty and a belief in the greatness of their new nation. Founding Gardeners is an exploration of that obsession, telling the story of the revolutionary

From the bestselling author of The Invention of Nature, a fascinating look at the Founding Fathers like none you've seen before.

For the Founding Fathers, gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions: a conjoined interest as deeply ingrained in their characters as the battle for liberty and a belief in the greatness of their new nation.

Founding Gardeners is an exploration of that obsession, telling the story of the revolutionary generation from the unique perspective of their lives as gardeners, plant hobbyists, and farmers. Acclaimed historian Andrea Wulf describes how George Washington wrote letters to his estate manager even as British warships gathered off Staten Island; how a tour of English gardens renewed Thomas Jefferson's and John Adams's faith in their fledgling nation; and why James Madison is the forgotten father of environmentalism. Through these and other stories, Wulf reveals a fresh, nuanced portrait of the men who created our nation.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 04/03/2012
ISBN: 9780307390684
Pages: 368
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.10w x 0.80d

Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 05/27/2012 pg. 24