Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation Audible – Unabridged ridged
Author: Andrea Wulf ID: B004U8IHG2
From the author of the acclaimed The Brother Gardeners, a fascinating look at the founding fathers from the unique and intimate perspective of their lives as gardeners, plantsmen, and farmers. For the founding fathers, gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions, as deeply ingrained in their characters as their belief in liberty for the nation they were creating. Andrea Wulf reveals for the first time this aspect of the revolutionary generation. She describes how, even as British ships gathered off Staten Island, George Washington wrote his estate manager about the garden at Mount Vernon; how a tour of English gardens renewed Thomas Jefferson’s and John Adams’s faith in their fledgling nation; how a trip to the great botanist John Bartram’s garden helped the delegates of the Constitutional Congress break their deadlock; and why James Madison is the forgotten father of American environmentalism. These and other stories reveal a guiding but previously overlooked ideology of the American Revolution. Founding Gardeners adds depth and nuance to our understanding of the American experiment and provides us with a portrait of the founding fathers as they’ve never before been seen.
Done.
Audible Audio EditionListening Length: 9 hours and 23 minutesProgram Type: AudiobookVersion: UnabridgedPublisher: Random House AudioAudible.com Release Date: March 29, 2011Language: EnglishID: B004U8IHG2 Best Sellers Rank: #34 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Nonfiction > Lifestyle & Home > Gardening #1224 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > History > United States & Canada #1253 in Books > History > Americas > United States > Revolution & Founding
It is a pleasure to report that this is one of those unique and rare books that is both a delight to read as well as being chock full of important information and significant insights. The author, a Brit, argues that "it’s impossible to understand the making of America without looking at the founding fathers as farmers and gardeners" (p. 4). To support her thesis, the author looks at principally Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison, although Franklin, George Mason, and George Wythe (among others) also make appearances. All of these four were deeply involved in agriculture and gardening, in addition to their political lives. I was surprised to learn how grumpy old John Adams turned into a happy camper when working on his farm or in his Philadelphia greenhouse (a gift of Abigail). While I knew that Jefferson was passionate about plants, so it was true of the other three as well, especially Washington who was quite the student of agriculture.
The author focuses upon some key events to develop her argument. Washington’s American garden of native plants and shrubs is discussed. The 1786 garden tour that TJ and Adams made in England where they visited many of the famouns English gardens and discovered them to be largely populated with American plants. This was the work of the little-known John Bartram (1699-1777), who shipped American plants and seeds to England from his Philadelphia nursery, as well as supplying the framers. The author’s "The Brother Gardeners" looks at these splendid English gardens and the role Bartram played in supplying American plants for them.
If you’ve read much about the founding fathers you hear a lot of little ‘mentions’ about their gardens. George Washington took time even while fighting the British to send instructions to his plantation manager regarding Mount Vernon. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson spent weeks touring gardens while in England, and Jefferson and James Madison later did the same in America. And the gardens at Jefferson’s Monticello and Madison’s Montpelier are still famous and visited by many today. But all you get in most histories are the little ‘mentions,’ and it’s always left the subject tantalizingly vague for me.
Washington was perhaps the most efficient gardener or farmer, abandoning tobacco early in favor of crops that weren’t so destructive to the soil. He also experimented extensively with manures in an effort to replenish the soil. Adams returned home after the presidency and was happiest working on his humble farm. Jefferson was always on the lookout for seeds and plants that might be beneficial in America and traded continually with a large network of friends (as did Benjamin Franklin). Jefferson was especially interested in the new species brought back by Lewis & Clark when they explored the Louisiana Territory and spent much of his time experimenting and trying to grow new and better plants.
Andrea Wulf explores this aspect of the founders that we seldom see except in glimpses. All were extremely interested in the land almost to the point of obsession, and saw nature as a symbol of America’s strength and potential. Wulf is clear from the beginning that she makes no distinction between "gardening" and "agriculture," and this occasionally makes it sound like she’s forcing connections in presenting her thesis.
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