Overview

A groundbreaking look at the Founding Fathers and their obsession with gardening, agriculture, and botany by the author of Magnificent Rebels and New York Times bestseller The Invention of Nature. • “Illuminating and engrossing.” —The New York Times Book Review 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.

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9780307390684

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Reviews

Illuminating and engrossing. . . . The reader relives the first decades of the Republic not only through her eloquent and revelatory prose but through the words of the statesmen themselves. -- The New York Times Book Review <br> Anecdotes . . . shimmer through Andrea Wulf's fine story of how gardening and farming shaped the thinking of Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison. . . . Luxurious and sharp-witted. -- San Francisco Chronicle <br> [A] lively and deeply researched history. . . . Wulf ingeniously connects . . . highbrow political philosophy to the founders' personal passion for horticulture. -- The Washington Post Book World <br> A timely and passionate book, with resonances beyond today's legion of new gardeners. . . . Wulf traces the birth of the modern environmental movement back beyond Thoreau and Muir to the founding fathers' passion for nature and plants. -- The Guardian <br> Andrea Wulf shows in her eloquently written and very begui

<p> Illuminating and engrossing. . . . The reader relives the first decades of the Republic not only through [Wulf's] eloquent and revelatory prose but through the words of the statesmen themselves. -- The New York Times Book Review <br> [A] lively and deeply researched history. --The Washington Post Book World <br> Anecdotes . . . shimmer through Andrea Wulf's fine story. . . . Luxurious and sharp-witted. -- San Francisco Chronicle <br> A work of historical and horticultural importance, one that examines America's origins through a new prism, and in so doing enriches Americans' understanding of their heritage. -- Richmond Times-Dispatch <br> Eloquently written and very beguiling. . . . [Wulf] is a writer of considerable grace and breadth of vision, and Founding Gardeners is an excellent portrait of the early years of the federal republic. -- The Plain Dealer <br> A new interpretation of early American history, one that connects the founders' zeal for agriculture and gardening to their thoughts on politics, independence, self-sufficiency, and patriotism. It's terrific. -- The Philadelphia Inquirer <br> <br> One of those rare books that, by focusing on a single angle of vision, brings to life a whole era and cast of characters. -- The Dallas Morning News <br> [Wulf] infuses her text with such liveliness, grace and original scholarship that the reader happily follows the author at a brisk trot wherever she may lead. And what a journey. For the first time, we are vividly shown how the founding fathers reinvented a system of agriculture geared to the needs of the young country. -- The Washington Times <br> Wulf has wonderfully illuminated an often overlooked and very important aspect of the founders' lives, providing new reasons to be inspired by them. . . . Delightful, enlightened reading. -- Nashville Scene <br> A timely and passionate book, with resonances beyond today's legion of new gardeners . . . Wulf traces theo

Author Information

ANDREA WULF was born in India and moved to Germany as a child. She trained as a design historian at the Royal College of Art and is the author of The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World and Founding Gardeners, The Brother Gardeners, and Chasing Venus, as well as the coauthor (with Emma Gieben-Gamal) of This Other Eden: Seven Great Gardens and 300 Years of English History. She has written for The Sunday Times, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, and she regularly reviews for several newspapers, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Times Literary Supplement.

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