The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring–and until now, untold–story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work. After risking the hazardous journey across the Atlantic, these Americans embarked on a greater journey in the City of … of Light. Most had never left home, never experienced a different culture. None had any guarantee of success. That they achieved so much for themselves and their country profoundly altered American history. As David McCullough writes, Not all pioneers went west. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America, was one of this intrepid band. Another was Charles Sumner, who enrolled at the Sorbonne because of a burning desire to know more about everything. There he saw black students with the same ambition he had, and when he returned home, he would become the most powerful, unyielding voice for abolition in the U.S. Senate, almost at the cost of his life. Two staunch friends, James Fenimore Cooper and Samuel F. B. Morse, worked unrelentingly every day in Paris, Cooper writing and Morse painting what would be his masterpiece. From something he saw in France, Morse would also bring home his momentous idea for the telegraph. Pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk from New Orleans launched his spectacular career performing in Paris at age 15. George P. A. Healy, who had almost no money and little education, took the gamble of a lifetime and with no prospects whatsoever in Paris became one of the most celebrated portrait painters of the day. His subjects included Abraham Lincoln. Medical student Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote home of his toil and the exhilaration in being at the center of things in what was then the medical capital of the world. From all they learned in Paris, Holmes and his fellow medicals were to exert lasting influence on the profession of medicine in the United States. Writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, and Henry James were all discovering Paris, marveling at the treasures in the Louvre, or out with the Sunday throngs strolling the city’s boulevards and gardens. At last I have come into a dreamland, wrote Harriet Beecher Stowe, seeking escape from the notoriety Uncle Tom’s Cabin had brought her. 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 even more atrocious nightmare of the Commune. His vivid account in his diary of the starvation and suffering endured by the people of Paris (drawn on here for the first time) is one readers will never forget. The genius of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the son of an immigrant shoemaker, and of painters Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent, three of the greatest American artists ever, would flourish in Paris, inspired by the examples of brilliant French masters, and by Paris itself. Nearly all of these Americans, whatever their troubles learning French, their spells of homesickness, and their suffering in the raw cold winters by the Seine, spent many of the happiest days and nights of their lives in Paris. McCullough tells this sweeping, fascinating story with power and intimacy, bringing us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens’s phrase, longed to soar into the blue. The Greater Journey is itself a masterpiece.
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Why did American medical students flock to Paris to study medicine in the 19th century? Because French medical training was based on the most advanced science whereas American training was Medieval until nearly the end of the century. Dramatic!
David McCullough is one of our greatest historical authors and this book does not disappoint. It is a tour-de-force of research and insight. I recently read “Americans in Paris Life and Death under Nazi Occupation,” which dealt with the years 1940-1946. McCullough’s book is focused on the 1830s through the early years of the 20th Century and encompasses the lives of noted artists, doctors, political figures, authors, artists, and others that came to Paris to seek their fortunes amid the rise of the middle-class during the industrial revolution. Many of these transplants came from America and would come to embrace the myriad of opportunities that Paris offered. Most would return to America improved and change the face of our nation with achievements born from their years in Paris. I highly recommend this book for any and all who care to understand the forces that shaped our nation.
McCullough chronicles the various Americans who traveled to Paris in mostly the 1800s and why they decided to go there to learn. What they brought back to America enriched its sciences and arts. This book provides such interesting stories portraying the adventurousness of these Americans. What could have been a rather dry account, McCullough infuses his usual magic and makes the story interesting. I was sorry when the book ended.
This book, with its beautiful cover illustration of belle Paris, caught my attention in National airport last month. I seriously contemplated purchasing it on the spot – having recently returned from Paris, I had a soft spot for it – but it was incredibly heavy so I waited to borrow it from the library.
The premise of the book is that is is the story of American artists, writers, doctors, and others who traveled to Paris between, roughly, 1830 and 1870. The names are nearly all familiar: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elizabeth Blackwell, Charles Sumner, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Cassatt, Samuel Morse, James Fenimore Cooper, Henry James, John Sargent Singer, PT Barnum and Tom Thumb, Augustus Saint-Gaudens. And while the book does a fine job of following all of these individuals, where it really excels is in capturing the essence of not only the city, but the era.
David McCullough takes pains to describe Samuel Morse’s frustrations in trying to patent the system that would eventually bear his name, the long hours in medical clinics and art studios, and the discourse on slavery, emancipation, and the American Civil War. McCullough is at his finest when writing of war and conflict; the time period he has chosen, beginning with the 1830 revolution and ending with the emergence of Paris as a modern city (as evidenced by the “monstrous” tower Eiffel erected on the old military parage grounds), offers no shortage of war and revolution.
Early on, it is the 1830 revolution, followed by another less than 20 years later, and then the Franco-Prussian war (and the recklessness which wrought it and, subsequently, some 75 years of French-German conflict). Most interesting to me, however, was the treatment of the Communards, a short but turbulent and terrible period in French/Parisian history about which I had previously learned little. Given that this is in the ballpark of the number killed during the Reign of Terror (obviously, precise figures are not available for either of these times), I was surprised I hadn’t learned of it previously.
Overall, this was a good read, although it could be quite dense at time and, therefore, a bit of a slow go. French history or American art history buffs would enjoy it greatly, but others might find it just a bit on the dull side.
(This review was originally published at http://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2012/08/the-greater-journey-americans-in-paris.html)
It’s hard to beat McCullough for entertaining history. Few do it better. This book gives a fascinating look at the history of the development of medicine in the young USA as well as its status in Europe, especially France. McCullough provides human detail that makes history come alive. The reader can expect to come away with a better understanding of other aspects of life in earlier times and how it was affected by the state of medical care. For the first time I understand how it could reasonably have been thought that intentional bleeding might improve one’s health.
This is one of my favorite books. How the artists interact is fascinating.
Also, it is written by David McCollough therefore an intelligent read.
I found this a very interesting history. But there were so many people who came in and out of the very long history that it was difficult to keep track of everyone. I had to keep flipping back and forth. Even so, I recommend the book.
Very interesting and well crafted
This is one of my favorite books.
Unique lang of history
organized American history
Truly boring