The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris

David McCullough

may 2011 · Distribuido por Simon and Schuster

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The #1 bestseller that tells the remarkable story of the generations of American artists, writers, and doctors who traveled to Paris, fell in love with the city and its people, and changed America through what they learned, told by America’s master historian, David McCullough.

Not all pioneers went west.

In The Greater Journey, David McCullough tells the enthralling, inspiring—and until now, untold—story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, and others who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, hungry to learn and to excel in their work. What they achieved would profoundly alter American history.

Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America, was one of this intrepid band. Another was Charles Sumner, whose encounters with black students at the Sorbonne inspired him to become the most powerful voice for abolition in the US Senate. Friends James Fenimore Cooper and Samuel F. B. Morse worked unrelentingly every day in Paris, Morse not only painting what would be his masterpiece, but also bringing home his momentous idea for the telegraph. Harriet Beecher Stowe traveled to Paris to escape the controversy generated by her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Three of the greatest American artists ever—sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, painters Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent—flourished in Paris, inspired by French masters.

Almost forgotten today, the heroic American ambassador Elihu Washburne bravely remained at his post through the Franco-Prussian War, the long Siege of Paris, and the nightmare of the Commune. His vivid diary account of the starvation and suffering endured by the people of Paris is published here for the first time.

Telling their stories with power and intimacy, McCullough brings us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens’ phrase, longed “to soar into the blue.”

Calificaciones y opiniones

The animosity in the case of the United States of America vs. France is an incredible case of ignorance and politics by slogan when in reality anybody who wants to know would know that the United States of America revolutionary war could not have been won without the active and intellectual and material help of the French. Case in point: the citizens of the United States of America would do well in remembering the Marquise of Lafayette and his role in general George Washington's military staff as emblematic of such French participation. A new and marvelous book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, 1830-1900 by historian David McCullough cleverly narrates the other truth: That in the years comprised in this narration, hordes of Americans that wanted to be seriously educated in the arts, the law, medicine and many other activities had to and did move to Paris and it's marvelous musea, universities, hospitals and institutes, and even cafes and cabarets were culture reigned and what Germans call "Kaffeeklatsch"and Spaniards call "tertulia", was the basis of educated and interesting human communication.

Acerca del autor

David McCullough (1933–2022) twice received the Pulitzer Prize, for Truman and John Adams, and twice received the National Book Award, for The Path Between the Seas and Mornings on Horseback. His other acclaimed books include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, Brave Companions, 1776, The Greater Journey, The American Spirit, The Wright Brothers, and The Pioneers. He was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. Visit DavidMcCullough.com.