Founding Gardeners: the Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation by Andrea Wulf (Review by Barry Brown)

The writer of this book is a German who speaks British English, which surprised me as I thought the topic would only be of interest to an American historian.  Andrea Wulf was trained to be a design historian at London's Royal College of Art and has written for numerous influential publications as well as the books The Brother Gardeners: Botany Empire and the Birth of an Obsession and The Other Eden: Seven Great Gardens and 300 Years of English History (with Emma Gieben-Gamal).  What prompted her to write Founding Gardeners was a visit to Monticello in October of 2006 when she stood on Thomas Jefferson's vegetable terrace taking in the garden and its Blue Ridge Mountain setting she had a sense of Jefferson's vision of man and nature in perfect harmony.  Later as she was writing about the eighteenth century American plant collector John Bartram and his role in introducing non-native plants into the English landscape (John Bartram had sent boxes of seed and slips to England over five decades, beginning in the 1730's) she could not get Monticello out of her mind.  This lead to her finding out about Bartram's American correspondents, who were numerous. Quite a number of these American friends of Bartram visited him at his farm and nursery near Philadelphia during the Constitutional Convention in 1787.  This visit generated some business in seeds, plants and slips for John Bartram but also got delegates talking to one another who were very divided over the question of how representation was to be set up in the new constitution and may very well have helped bring about the compromise that became our new constitution.  It does seem strange to learn so much about our own country's history from a European design historian!  But I recommend reading this book. I reread the chapter "A Nursery of American Statesmen: the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and a Garden Visit" for both its retelling of the story of the convention and the description of John Bartram's garden and nursery.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret Takes Two

This Thanksgiving the movie "Hugo" based on Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret will be released in theatres nationwide. Read the book, enjoy Thanksgiving, see the movie, write a review!