David McCullough's The Greater Journey ~ my review

I have some new heroes after reading David McCullough’s The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. As the author says, “Not all pioneers went west.” Drawing from their detailed journals and letters, McCullough chronicles adventures of American pioneers in Paris for a century beginning in the mid-1820s.

Like our western pioneers, our eastern pioneers left security at home for unknown frontiers. Instead of traveling overland by wagon, they traveled tempestuous seas in cargo ship steerage, as the 1820s were pre-passenger-ship years. Instead of starting over in wilderness to build their own new life, Paris pioneers desired to be drawn into what was then the most sophisticated society on earth. Even then, Paris had the reputation of being the cultural, culinary, educational, architectural, and artistic center of the world. Back then, Paris was also where aspiring doctors went for the most advanced medical education. McCullough’s Paris pioneers did not dream of building log cabins, but careers. Journeying to Paris, they longed to learn. Most were captivated by the allure of Parisian life. Some stayed, some returned to America, some bounced back and forth, but for all, Paris itself was an education.

Americans Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Fenimore Cooper, Samuel F.B. Morse, Emma Hart Willard, Charles Sumner, George P.A. Healy, Nathaniel Parker Willis, John Sanderson, Mason Warren, Mary Cassatt, Augustus and Augusta Saint-Gaudens, Richard Morris Hunt, John Singer Sargent, and Elihu Benjamin Washburne (among others) people the pages of The Greater Journey. In addition, Frenchmen Marquis de Lafayette, King Louis-Philippe, and Alexis de Toqueville figure in to the Americans’ stories. Reading personal details from everyone’s journals and letters, I could walk alongside them in their trials and triumphs. I especially liked relational aspects, who became friends with whom while in Paris. I loved, for example, that every day after Cooper finished writing on his Leatherstocking Tales, he visited Morse painting at the Louvre.

Eyewitness to history, I saw Morse’s transition from painter to inventor of the telegraph, American medical students on hospital rounds during Paris’ 1832 cholera epidemic, and Universal Expositions of 1867, 1889, and 1900. Artists and writers I had passing appreciation for came alive for me in new ways as I learned more about their experiences. My horizons were broadened by learning how theirs were in Europe. I saw ways the American Civil War affected people both at home and abroad.

One of my new heroes is Charles Sumner. While attending a lecture at the Sorbonne, he noticed whites and blacks mingling. The resulting epiphany, that the view of blacks as inferior was a learned—not natural—distance, fired up his passion as an abolitionist when he returned home. A little more than a decade later, Sumner paid dearly for his strong stance, as a fellow U.S. Senator bludgeoned him nearly to death on the Senate floor.

Another new hero is Elihu Washburne, U.S. Minister to France from 1869 to 1877, years encompassing the Franco-Prussian war and violent, fiery uprising and military suppression of the Paris Communards. What he did to protect and preserve hundreds of Americans, and Germans, during these tumultuous times was nothing short of heroic. My eyes were opened to the dark horrors of these years contrasted with the bright, shining example of Washburne’s sacrificial compassion and cool head. What a difference maker!

Stories, facts, surprises—The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris fascinated me. This book increased my admiration for the fortitude and perseverance it takes to perfect one’s craft and stay steady in the face of adversity and criticism. It also enlightened me about 1800s history in general and American-French relations in particular. And while I was reading this book, I got to be in Paris!