Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Andrea Wulf (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 29, 2011

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Not only did Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison operate farms, all believed agriculture was the noblest occupation and the foundation of democracy. All loved to talk about it, write about it, and spend leisure time (between building a nation) inspecting local farms. Scholars have not ignored this, but British design historian Wulf (The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession) focuses on the agricultural passion that also reflected the political convictions of America's founders. Even while fighting the Revolution and governing the nation, Washington bombarded the manager of his beloved Mount Vernon with detailed instructions and insisted on prompt replies. During years of diplomatic service overseas, Adams and Jefferson toured private gardens and studied the latest agricultural techniques. This obsession went beyond the personal, influencing the design of Washington, D.C., and the White House, where Jefferson wanted only native shrubs and trees. Detailed botanical descriptions, garden layouts, and crop yields of their estates may appeal more to fans of horticulture than of history, but Wulf offers a delightful new perspective on the men we usually associate more with politics than with plants. 16 pages of color illus.; 19 b&w illus. (Apr.)
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Review

"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

"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

"[A] lively and deeply researched history. . . . Wulf ingeniously connects . . . highbrow political philosophy to the founders’ personal passion for horticulture." —The Washington Post Book World

"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

"Andrea Wulf shows in her eloquently written and very beguiling Founding Gardeners that the garden, the natural world and the shape of a new nation were, for the men who launched the United States, parts of a whole. . . . She 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. It will delight the general reader." —The Plain Dealer

"A highly enjoyable and thought-provoking book. Wulf combines a sure knowledge of garden history and 18th-centry politics with a keen eye for domestic detail and evocative description. By focusing the grand narrative of early America on four individuals, she writes the best kind of popular history." —The Irish Times

"It is certain that 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."
—NashvilleScene.com

"Wonderfully engaging. . . . Breaks new ground." —The Times Literary Supplement (London)

"Fresh and bountiful. . . . Wulf’s delectable anecdotal approach . . . reveals each founder’s personality and perpective, while her dynamic analysis results in a paradigm-altering vision of how ‘the balance of nature’ underlies our founding principles." —Booklist (starred review)

"Wulf offers a delightful new perspective on the men we usually associate more with politics than with plants." —Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1ST edition (March 29, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307269906
• ISBN-13: 978-0307269904
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.4 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars delectable! May 3, 2011

By gussie

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Andrea Wulf is a graceful and stylish wordsmith. Her subject is the fact that farming and gardening and garden design were central concerns of all the founding fathers. The focus is on Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison. Lots of detail here about their own gardens and estates: the design of the space, the plants they favored for both food and beauty, and the time and energy they spent on these matters. Good chapter on the Lewis and Clark expedition and its impact on gardeners. Lots of detail, but never dull even to this non-gardener.

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Founders as Farmers May 8, 2011

By Ronald H. Clark VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

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. One chapter deals with the deadlocked Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, which the author suggests might have been able to reach compromise due to a visit of some key delegates to Bartram's nursery for a refreshing break. While some have criticized this suggestion, I found it interesting, and whether one agrees with it or not does not affect the great value and enjoyment of the book.

Next we follow the 1791 New England purported garden tour of Jefferson and Madison, which was probably more political than botanical. A chapter discusses the selection and creation of Washington, D.C. The final chapters focus on Jefferson and Madison. Of course who better than Jefferson to organize and direct the Lewis and Clark expedition which resulted in a treasure trove of new trees and plants. TJ's retirement at Monticello is for me one of the most interesting stages of his life, and he was extensively involved in agricultural research during this period--as an "experimental gardener" to use the author's description. And the more shadowy Madison emerges as the father of the American environmental movement with his 1817 address to the Agricultural Society of Albemarle (Virginia).

The author explains how plants were more than just a hobby; these patriots saw American plants and shrubs as one basis for continued independence since they supplied our needs domestically. These framers shared the view that a nation of independent small farmers would foreclose the inherent corruption of laborers forced to survive in "putrid" cities. How slavery fitted into all this is also touched upon by the author. The author's research (reflected in 81 pages of notes, including important references to electronic data sources) is awesome. The book has 16 color plates and 19 B&W illustrations. I knew nothing of plants, but the author's skillful narrative is rich in descriptive power. The book itself is beautifully produced, from the colorful dust jacket to the fine paper--yet another example of the superb work done by Berryville Graphics in Virginia. Accept the author's argument or not, this book stands as a unique and insightful study of the sometimes mythical "founders".

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pesidential Gardeners May 30, 2011

By Michael E. Brown

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a Master Gardener and a Certified Landscape Design Consultant, I found this book absolutely fascinating. In a time when our founding fathers were striving to build a nation, gardening helped to give them the peace of mind to escape the rigors of their day to day trials and tribulations. I was amazed at the level of knowledge and enthusiasm that each possessed. This a must read for history lovers and especially for all gardeners. Mike Brown