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The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris

3.85 of 5 stars 3.85 · rating details · 7,837 ratings · 1,184 reviews

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...more 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 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.(less)

Hardcover, 558 pages

Published May 24th 2011 by Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group

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Dec 29, 2012 Susanna marked it as mt-tbr

Shelves: 19th-century, history

A new McCullough! Squee!

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Mar 03, 2013 Randy Auxier rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-non-fiction

(This review appeared in the Carbondale Nightlife, February 28-March 6, 2013, p. 14.)

David McCullough became a household name in the most unlikely way. He wrote a biography of John Adams, who was tedious on his best day. Somehow the little guy came to life in McCullough’s prose. But there’s a back story. McCullough’s great secret? He’s not a history professor; he’s a writer. He has nothing beyond a Bachelor’s degree, and that’s in literature (albeit from Yale, where he studied with Thornton Wild...more (This review appeared in the Carbondale Nightlife, February 28-March 6, 2013, p. 14.)

David McCullough became a household name in the most unlikely way. He wrote a biography of John Adams, who was tedious on his best day. Somehow the little guy came to life in McCullough’s prose. But there’s a back story. McCullough’s great secret? He’s not a history professor; he’s a writer. He has nothing beyond a Bachelor’s degree, and that’s in literature (albeit from Yale, where he studied with Thornton Wilder, Robert Penn Warren, etc. etc.). McCullough always made his living as a writer and over the decades won every conceivable award – two Pulitzers, two National Book Awards, and The Medal of Freedom among them. All that acclaim did not add up to staggering book sales, however. Then came Adams. It’s like scoring a number one hit with a remake of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” And how do you follow that?

First McCullough cleaned off his desk and tossed the leftover research into a chronicle of the year 1776 (for those who hadn’t had quite enough Adams) and surveyed the options available to a best-selling author. Poor David. Forced to spend the next years in Paris, researching The Greater Journey. The title is drawn from a line at the end of the prologue chapter: “Great as their journey had been by sea, a greater journey had begun, as they already sensed, and from it they were to learn more, and bring back more, of infinite value to themselves and to their country than they yet knew.” (p. 24) “They” is the first batch of Americans to become expatriated to Paris in the early 1830s. There would be a half dozen more batches before the book ends around 1900. Who really cares what a bunch of backwater barbarians think about the center of the civilized world. There is a certain Tarzan in New York quality to the tale. But I discovered that I’m a backwater barbarian and this was just the primer I needed to put in order that very confusing history.

For the first time I understand the difference between the first and second empires and the first – third republics. I confess that before this book worked its magic, I was just annoyed with the image of excitable Frenchpersons rushing to the barricades for reasons only they could fathom. What I needed was the first-hand fathoming of others like me. McCullough has chosen about 50 Americans – you’ll recognize most of the names, but you won’t know their stories – and ransacked their letters and diaries for narration of the pivotal events. A dozen of these expats become the leading characters while the rest are supporting cast. Among the former we find James Fenimore Cooper, Samuel F. B. Morse, Charles Sumner, Oliver Wendell Holmes (Sr.), George P. A. Healy, Ellihu Washburne, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. By the end of the book, these people will be your favorite neighbors, the ones you love to hate because they come home with such fantastic stories of sojourns abroad. Painlessly, you will understand the Cholera Epidemic of 1831, the Revolution of 1848, the Franco-Prussian War, the Paris Commune, and why on earth the French were moved to give us the Statue of Liberty. That is no small service to a barbarian tel moi.

McCullough pleads his case for the fine arts and humanities, along with humane science, by detailing, as if from within, the trials and triumphs of his Americans in Paris. I hated to see the book end. It is so beautifully written. I really need to go back to Paris. And I don’t like Paris, with its fascist-feeling uniform architecture. (I now know that was the work of a totalitarian regime the French finally overthrew. To the barricades!!!) So now I blame the vanquished for reminding me of all those murdered and exploited Algerians and Tunisians, while a handful of snooty people, without even the decency to speak English, lived it up for a century. Those bastards! But I just saw Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, and that softened me. No, more than softened, I was educated. No matter what Paris you visit, you really yearn for something you wouldn’t have appreciated until it was too late. Momentous events and memorable personages are knocking about the streets even now, but I know neither what nor whom. McCullough conveys, tantalizingly, that history happens behind our backs and the next great work of art is, quite possibly, being made down some tiny alleyway that I passed by without a thought. Well, I guess I was thinking of something that already happened instead of attending to the exciting prospects of the present moment.
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Dec 02, 2012 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: paris, nonfiction, gettin-outta-dodge

I can see how, in all the wild Sturm und Drang of this modern world, you just might get in the mood for a couple of peaceful evenings in the parlor listening to a softly ticking clock and a mild, grandfatherly-type person amble gently through his stock of anecdotes. And if you happen to like your anecdotes very gentle and discursive indeed, and you’ve a yen to untangle bits about some pretty interesting Americans in Paris between 1830 and 1900 from the anecdote skein, then this is the book for y...more

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Jun 10, 2011 Grumpus rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, history

Dear Goodreads Community:

This is not easy for me to do and I am sorry to have to do this in this forum. I realize it is a bit cowardly and beg your understanding but you need to know it is not you, it’s me—well, maybe it is you.

Yes, over the last four years we’ve had some good times and I will cherish those books you’ve recommended through your insightful reviews and ratings. Those were wonderful times and I trusted you then. However, over the past year or so, it seems more and more that you’ve...more Dear Goodreads Community:

This is not easy for me to do and I am sorry to have to do this in this forum. I realize it is a bit cowardly and beg your understanding but you need to know it is not you, it’s me—well, maybe it is you.

Yes, over the last four years we’ve had some good times and I will cherish those books you’ve recommended through your insightful reviews and ratings. Those were wonderful times and I trusted you then. However, over the past year or so, it seems more and more that you’ve taken that trust and mocked me, and dare I say, wasted my time?—the ultimate slap in the face in the book reading world.

You are not entirely to blame. Sometimes relationships just drift apart. People become interested in different things as they grow and perspectives change. I’ve grown tired of being a contrarian in this relationship and feel that it is time for me to step back and re-evaluate your opinions.

What? You want me to give you examples? Do I really have to tell you? This is so like you—wanting me to spell everything out for you. Okay, take this book for example. I list David McCullough as one of my favorites and you have generally supported my viewpoint regarding him with your ratings. For this book, 87% of you gave it 4 or 5 stars. Slam dunk decision to read it is what you’re basically telling me. Disappointingly, through my reading of this based upon your recommendation, you have embarrassed me in public as I found the book to be a see-saw read of good chapters and ho-hum chapters about various people. Most of the time I did not care about these people at all (and I’m a history lover). I was not drawn in to these lives nor did you warn me about vicissitudes of the chapters. Still, I did trudge through it and as you can see, I did give it two stars meaning it was “OK” but based upon your ratings I was expecting so much more. Relationships are about being there for each other and I didn’t feel as though you were in this case.

Another example was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Eighty percent gave this 4 or 5 stars but yet again, I did not understand the inordinate praise that was heaped upon this book. From my review of that book, ”I was moved by the tragic story of Henrietta's life. She deserved much better. However, the story seemed to drone on about the life of her descendants to the point I didn't care about them anymore. They began to annoy me with their antics to the point that the sympathy I originally had for them disappeared. I understand their socio- and economic background and understand their plight but as Henrietta's daughter said, ‘times were different back then’ and nothing was done intentionally to defraud or short-change the family. “ So that was my take and I could not see the love that everyone had for this one either.

These are just two examples and I could go on but I think you get the point.

Don’t get me wrong, we can move forward and maintain a relationship as there is still more than a soupcon of trust between us but it will take work to build that back up over time. Oh, we’ll still continue to see each other just as much and that’s why I’m hoping we can still be cordial and friendly but I need some time and space until I see that our ratings dovetail more closely. Don’t hate me. . .

Still Friends,

Grumpus
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Oct 06, 2011 Clif Hostetler rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This is the story of Americans who traveled to Paris during the seven final decades of the 19th century. It's a history of the young years of individuals who ended up being famous and important Americans in their later mature years. Generally speaking, many of them were single, affluent individuals (mostly men) in their 20's intent on learning the artistic, scientific, and medical skills of the French who were perceived to be leaders in these fields.

I too spent some time traveling in Europe when...more This is the story of Americans who traveled to Paris during the seven final decades of the 19th century. It's a history of the young years of individuals who ended up being famous and important Americans in their later mature years. Generally speaking, many of them were single, affluent individuals (mostly men) in their 20's intent on learning the artistic, scientific, and medical skills of the French who were perceived to be leaders in these fields.

I too spent some time traveling in Europe when I was young, and reading of the experiences of these early Americans reminded me of my own excitement of being young in a foreign country. So I would like to think that I was able to identify with some of their experiences, particularly their commiserating with other Americans they met abroad.

Here's a partial list of individuals covered by this book:

Oliver Wendell Holmes (physician, professor, lecturer, and author)
James Fenimore Cooper (author)
Charles Sumner (abolitionist politician)
Samuel F. B. Morse (failed artist and inventor of the telegraph)
Elizabeth Blackwell (America’s first female physician)
Harriet Beecher Stowe (author)
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (sculptor)
Elizabeth Fisher Nichols (wife of Augustus Saint-Gaudens)
Mary Cassatt (artist-painter)
John Singer Sergeant (artist-painter)
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (artist-painter)
James Adams (author)

In the process of telling the story of the Parisian adventures of these individuals, the book also provides a summary history of France during these same years. This includes the Franco-Prussian War and the terror of the temporary reign of the Paris Commune.

There's a story in the book that I enjoyed because it gave an example of the advantages of speaking bad French. During the reign of the Paris Commune an unruly mob came to an estate owned by a rich American and demanded every animal on the premises. He replied, ". . . you may have 'le cheval' but not the 'le vache' using the masculine pronoun le for cow, it was more than they (the mob) could bear." The mob convulsed with laughter. So they took the horse and left the cow; The bad French thus defused a potentially deadly confrontation and turned it into a funny story.

The book contains an epilog that briefly tells what happened to many of these individuals after they returned home.(less)

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Dec 22, 2011 Steve Avery rated it 5 of 5 stars

Historian David McCullough's 2011 nonfiction look at American's journeying to Paris in 19th Century arrived at my door last evening. I am anxious to read about Oliver Wendell Holmes and other Americans journey of discovery in the New World.
AZCentral.com: Great Q&A with the author in Arts and Entertainment section of the Arizona Republic today

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Nov 02, 2012 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Paul by: Jacques & Amanda

This is the second David McCullough work that I’ve read and I must admit I’ve had the same basic reaction to both - extremely well researched, highly informative, wonderfully interesting. Yet this journey (as was the other – “Undaunted Courage”) was a bit of a slog – not a book to be run through in a few days like some light mystery.

This work deals with Americans who traveled to Paris during the 19th Century and the effect that “The City of Light” had on their careers, their insights, their acc...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Diane rated it 5 of 5 stars

If I wasn't already married to the most wonderful man in the universe, David would be my second choice! This is a wonderful piece of non-fiction, peopled with fascinating characters and tidbits of French and American history. I gazed at Sargent's masterpiece The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit on a recent visit to the MFA with a new appreciation!

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Jul 11, 2011 Megan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, books-i-own

So far, this might be one of my favorite works by McCullough. I can see constructing a graduate level course around it, involving the history and works discussed in the book. I feel that McCullough is at his best when he is looking at individual people (as evidenced by the success of Truman, John Adams, and Mornings on Horseback). I'm about 1/4 of the way through, so we'll see if my opinion changes. I doubt it.

Update (7/11/11): Done! I loved this book. Paris is such a magical location, so it was...more

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Jun 17, 2013 Susie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Listened to the audio version with the print as back up (and I was glad I had immediate access to the many referenced works of art). Edward Herrman does a wonderful job with the reading. I simply adored the chapters about changes in medicine and the advantages of going to Paris for training. The numerous chapters on artists bogged down a bit for me; yes I understand the St. Gaudens process of creating the Farragut statue was painstaking, but it could have been edited a bit.

I think one measure of...more

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May 24, 2013 Rebecca rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

What a delight! A thoroughly enjoyable read, and an introduction to the 19th century, about which I recently realized I understand nothing beyond the Civil War.

Everyone’s here. You'll read how Charles Sumner, the great abolitionist, found moral enlightenment in a chance encounter at a Paris lecture; about the beginnings of American medicine in Parisian classrooms; all the great American painters; a succession of French kings and dictators; even Mark Twain makes a cameo appearance. Along the way...more

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May 13, 2013 Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars

As David McCullough writes, “Not all pioneers went west.”

In The Greater Journey, he tells the enthralling, inspiring—and until now, untold—story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, and others who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, hungry to learn and to excel in their work. What they achieved would profoundly alter American history.

Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America, was one of this intrepid band. Another was Charles Su

...more

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, whose encounters with black students at the Sorbonne inspired him to become the most powerful voice for abolition in the U.S. Senate. Friends James Fenimore Cooper and Samuel F. B. Morse worked unrelentingly every day in Paris, Morse not only painting what would be his masterpiece, but also bringing home his momentous idea for the telegraph. Harriet Beecher Stowe traveled to Paris to escape the controversy generated by her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Three of the greatest American artists ever—sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, painters Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent—flourished in Paris, inspired by French masters.

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 the nightmare of the Commune. His vivid diary account of the starvation and suffering endured by the people of Paris is published here for the first time.

Telling their stories with power and intimacy, McCullough brings us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens’ phrase, longed “to soar into the blue.”

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2011: At first glance, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris might seem to be foreign territory for David McCullough, whose other books have mostly remained in the Western Hemisphere. But The Greater Journey is still a quintessentially American history. Between 1830 and 1900, hundreds of Americans--many of them future household names like Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mark Twain, Samuel Morse, and Harriet Beecher Stowe--migrated to Paris. McCullough shows first how the City of Light affected each of them in turn, and how they helped shape American art, medicine, writing, science, and politics in profound ways when they came back to the United States. McCullough's histories have always managed to combine meticulous research with sheer enthusiasm for his subjects, and it's hard not to come away with a sense that you've learned something new and important about whatever he's tackled. The Greater Journey is, like each of McCullough's previous histories, a dazzling and kaleidoscopic foray into American history by one of its greatest living chroniclers. --Darryl Campbell

Review

"An epic of ideas, as well as an exhilirating book of spells . . . This is history to be savored."

—Stacy Schiff, The New York Times Book Review

“An ambitious, wide-ranging study of how being in Paris helped spark generations of American genius. . . . A gorgeously rich, sparkling patchwork, eliciting stories from diaries and memoirs to create the human drama McCullough depicts so well.”

—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A lively and entertaining panorama. . . . By the time he shows us the triumphant Exposition Universelle in 1889, witnessed through the eyes of such characters as painters John Singer Sargent and Robert Henri, we share McCullough's enthusiasm for the city and his affection for the many Americans who improved their lives, their talent and their nation by drinking at the fountain that was Paris.”

—Michael Sims, The Washington Post

"From a dazzling beginning that captures the thrill of arriving in Paris in 1830 to the dawn of the 20th century, McCullough chronicles the generations that came, saw and were conquered by Paris. . . . The Greater Journey will satisfy McCullough's legion of loyal fans . . . it will entice a whole new generation of Francophiles, armchair travelers and those Americans lucky enough to go to Paris before they die."

—Bruce Watson, The San Francisco Chronicle

"McCullough's skill as a storyteller is on full display. . . . The idea of telling the story of the French cultural contribution to America through the eyes of a generation of aspiring artists, writers and doctors is inspired. . . a compelling and largely untold story in American history."

—Kevin J. Hamilton, The Seattle Times

"There is not an uninteresting page here as one fascinating character after another is explored at a crucial stage of his development. . . . Wonderful, engaging writing full of delighting detail."

—John Barron, Chicago Sun-Times

“McCullough’s research is staggering to perceive, and the interpretation he lends to his material is impressive to behold. . . . Expect his latest book to ascend the best-seller lists and be given a place on the year-end best lists.”

—Booklist (starred review)

“A highly readable and entertaining travelogue of a special sort, an interdisciplinary treat from a tremendously popular Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. . . . Highly recommended.”

—Library Journal (starred review)

“For more than 40 years, David McCullough has brought the past to life in books distinguished by vigorous storytelling and vivid characterizations. . . . . McCullough again finds a slighted subject in The Greater Journey, which chronicles the adventures of Americans in Paris. . . . Wonderfully atmospheric.”

—Wendy Smith, Los Angeles Times

“McCullough has hit the historical jackpot. . . . A colorful parade of educated, Victorian-era American travelers and their life-changing experiences in Paris.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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Apr 21, 2013 Bob rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was our most recent read-while-traveling book, recommended by our friend Bob Weir. We started reading aloud during a trip to Colorado. I found it so engrossing that I finished it after the trip. Then we picked up the reading aloud on a trip to Portland OR and finished it on our most recent trip to Colorado again. Since Kathy lived in Paris for a time while growing up, and again right after college, and she dragged me there twice since then, we both could visualize some of the settings. Now...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Peter Fortune rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

David McCullough--one of my favorite biographers--loves Paris. Especially the Paris of the last two-thirds of the 19th century when Americans arrived in herds to ogle the City of Light and learn in its schhols of art, medicine, and engineering. Samuel F. B. Morris completed his masterpiece of detail in an oil painting of a room in the Louvre, with a tiny replica of each painting fixed in its proper place--but he left to become the inventor of the telegraph. Oliver Wendell Holms came for medical...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Brian Bess rated it 4 of 5 stars

Multiple Americans in Paris

I have heard David McCullough narrate so many PBS specials over the years that when I began reading this book, I heard his voice telling it to me. It is structured much like many of those as well, following the route of one character who followed one course of action, then contrasting that with the route of another character and so on, like a woven tapestry. That seems to be the most effective way to write when dealing with the sagas of multiple characters.

The stereoty...more Multiple Americans in Paris

I have heard David McCullough narrate so many PBS specials over the years that when I began reading this book, I heard his voice telling it to me. It is structured much like many of those as well, following the route of one character who followed one course of action, then contrasting that with the route of another character and so on, like a woven tapestry. That seems to be the most effective way to write when dealing with the sagas of multiple characters.

The stereotypes of Paris as the city of love, the seductress, are true to a certain extent. In the nineteenth century it was an alluring Mecca for aspiring young American artists, writers, doctors, architects, etc. Most of these young people came from affluent families who not only could provide the financial aid to get their offspring overseas but that also acknowledged the cultural benefits of living in such a community. The cost of living was reasonable, at least in the early part of the century, and one could live relatively well and keep expenses to a reasonable level.

When dealing with the stories of several diverse individuals, certain characters will emerge as ‘leads’ and make more of an indelible impression than others. I did not know that Samuel Morse, co-inventor of Morse code and the single-wire telegraph, originally went to Paris with the expectation of becoming a major painter. Once he got there he worked diligently to become one. Luckily, he developed peripheral interests such as electromagnetism, which inspired Morse to develop the telegraph. When it became obvious that he would never attain critical or commercial recognition as an artist, Morse gave up painting altogether and developed his invention, eventually acquiring the fame and wealth that had eluded him earlier.

One of the most gripping episodes in the book concerns the Siege of Paris in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War. Elihu Washburne was the American diplomatic minister to France and the only representative of a foreign government to stay in France and provide diplomatic and humanitarian support throughout the siege, the ensuing deprivation, starvation, depletion of resources and violent overthrow by the Paris Commune. Even as food supplies vanished and residents resorted to eating horses, dogs and rats (‘rat soufflé’ became a menu option), many restaurants remained open and adapted to the conditions. The diary that Washburne kept provides a valuable first-hand account of this time.

Almost every major artistic and literary figure that set foot in Paris during the years 1830-1890 at least gets a mention. McCullough also includes accounts of the origin of those two Paris-based structures the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Lady Liberty was a colossal exported gift to America. Its inner iron skeletal structure was built by France’s premier civil engineer, Gustave Eiffel, whose giant tower was originally intended as a gateway to the 1889 Exposition Universalle, the French World’s Fair. Originally considered a vulgar eyesore by many critics (‘more in character with America’), it eventually became the most common visual symbol of Paris.

I had previously known of Americans in Paris primarily through the fiction of Henry James, whose early novel The American opens with a scene in the Louvre. James was just one of many Americans magnetically drawn to Paris. McCullough is a master narrative weaver, deftly juggling the journeys of dozens of characters and effectively conveying the reasons Paris cast such a pervasive spell on so many Americans, many of whom left and returned many times. Subsequent to the nineteenth century, an anti-French prejudice seems to have become prevalent among many Americans. This attitude is in stark contrast to the prevailing nineteenth century view, at least of those Americans who had the means to experience it for themselves, that Paris has been for many centuries one of the world’s foremost cultural centers.
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Nov 02, 2012 Ms. Littell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

I've always wanted to read a David McCullough book but have lacked motivation. This book was for my monthly book club meeting at the public library, and the hurricane days provided me ample opportunity to read it.

Overall, I liked it but there were parts I just wanted to get through because it felt repetitive. This novel takes the reader to Paris throughout the 1800s to see the lives of Americans who decided to live there for any amount of time. Various famous Americans made their way there, incl...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Carolinecarver rated it 4 of 5 stars

Every time I visit the National Portrait Gallery, I am stuck by the painting of Mary Cassatt by Degas. I knew that she didn’t care for the picture, but I often wondered how it came to be, how these two giants of art came to know each other and how she happened to sit for the portrait. David McCullough explores that friendship and so much more in his spectacular and sweeping historical nonfiction book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. The “greater journey,’ as McCullough explains, was the...more Every time I visit the National Portrait Gallery, I am stuck by the painting of Mary Cassatt by Degas. I knew that she didn’t care for the picture, but I often wondered how it came to be, how these two giants of art came to know each other and how she happened to sit for the portrait. David McCullough explores that friendship and so much more in his spectacular and sweeping historical nonfiction book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. The “greater journey,’ as McCullough explains, was the time between the early 1830s and 1900 when American artists, inventors, musicians, writers, doctors and “people whose interest it was to excel” traveled to Paris to learn and to form friendships and relationships that would last a lifetime and make a profound impact on American life that lasted well beyond their time.

The story begins with the arduous Atlantic crossing by men like Samuel F.B. Morse, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Fenimore Cooper and other pilgrims seeking to improve themselves. Often supported by families back home, and mostly unschooled in French, these untraveled men, and a few women, made their way to the Sorbonne, the medical colleges, and art schools to learn all that they could, work hard and come home with new ideas that would change them and their fields and ultimately their country. At this time there were no medical schools in America. Fifty percent of doctors had never attended a medical college; they apprenticed under doctors who also had never studied medicine at a university. They practiced on live patients without anesthesia and rarely had seen a cadaver. The study of art, while at least not life-threatening, was also done through copying and apprenticeship, as there were no art schools in America. There were also no museums so there were only limited opportunities to view the masters in order to copy them.

By and large, the Americans’ time in Paris was transformative. Elizabeth Blackwell became America’s first female physician and went home to found a hospital run by women. Morse set out to be a painter and nearly killed himself learning his trade in the Louvre, perched atop a self-made scaffold that enabled him to reproduce high-hanging and iconic paintings for his famous painting of the Louvre. While he didn’t thrive as an artist, he did return home with ideas that enabled him to invent the telegraph and introduce photography to America. McCullough’s chronicle also details the experiences of such historically significant Americans as Charles Sumner, Elihu Washburne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Cassatt and her friendship with Degas and other impressionists, John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Henry Tanner, and sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens. Most had a keen awareness, as do many ex-pats, of being American. Only Mary Cassatt stayed in Paris for a lifetime. Nearly all went home, taking their new-found knowledge with them. Holmes returned to Boston, and in addition to starting Atlantic Magazine, helped to establish a medical program in Boston that would train future physicians. Sumner, whose discovery of Black students at the Sorbonne helped to shape his view of abolition, subsequently lent critical political support and guidance to Lincoln and Grant through the Civil War and reconstruction. Saint Gaudens’ sculptures of Civil War heroes helped to show the magnitude and horror of that war. Elihu Washburne, the American ambassador to Paris during the Franco-Prussian War, the subsequent Siege of Paris, and the even more horrible Commune, stayed at his post throughout and never left the city even as it burned and Communard assassins roamed the streets. His diaries provide an historical picture that is heroic and unforgettable.

These are powerful stories of friendships, intertwined with the making of art, medicine and history, particularly our own, that left me wanting more.
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Oct 16, 2012 Richard marked it as to-read

Recommended to Richard by: Mom

Shelves: history, non-fiction

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Reviews of The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris
New York Times, “How Paris Created America”
The Economist, “They were there, Lafayette”
The New Republic, “La Même Chose”

National Endowment for the Humanities — David McCullough (2003)
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Biography » Achievement.org » Recording the Drama of History

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Sep 24, 2012 Nell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, discussion-group

While the book made enjoyable reading and I learned a lot, the theme of Americans in Paris over decades wasn't strong enough to hold the book together very tightly. Our discussion group agreed that the section on the medical students is the strongest, since it covers several people who formed a cohesive community and paints a vivid picture of the state of medical science before antibiotics and anesthesia. The section about the diplomat Elihu Washburne also holds together well since it coalesces...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Sidna Bookout rated it 3 of 5 stars

This 456-page book got off to such a slow start that I was ready to give up on it even though I was reading it for one of my book discussion groups. The first 100 pages or so recount in excruciating detail the lives of some young Americans who go to Paris to live beginning aroun 1830. Their lives were of such little interest to me that I had decided to attend the discussion without finishing the book--something I never do. I would read a few pages and get so bored with the book that I would read...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a book I feared I wouldn't like at all, as it seemed too broad and eclectic. But I love reading David McCullough books so much that I couldn't resist. I found I was mistaken. It was a charming book. I don't think I've ever called a book charming before, but it fairly sums it up. McCullough brings you back to 19th Century Paris, where Americans are beginning to come in droves to learn science, art, medicine and other disciplines from the French. Some of the greatest names in American his...more

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Jul 13, 2012 Ari rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: france, read-in-2012

I loved that the author picked a time period to focus on that is studied less in school and not often portrayed in the media. While I love reading about the time of the Lost Generation I found myself surprisingly intrigued by late 19th century Paris. Especially the bits about the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune, I never fully realized how bloody France's history really is.

I do wish that McCullough had included more photos of the paintings and people he discussed. He is very thorough...more

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Apr 11, 2012 Rdonn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Rdonn by: Book Club Selection

This is a book that alternately fascinated and bored me!! However the former outweighed the latter. It's full of mini biographies of Americans who lived in Paris and were shaped by their experiences there. The years were from 1830 to 1900. For me the fascinating bios were of artists and they included three of my favorites, Sargent, Whistler, and Cassatt. One of the more important artists that McCullough spent a lot of time on was Augusts Saint-Gaudens, the sculptor. I hadn't realized how importa...more

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Feb 18, 2012 Deb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, art

McCullough begins this historical account of Americans in Paris in about 1830 and follows Parisian history, and the Americans who experienced it, through the beginning of the 20th century.

While thousands of Americans were heading west in covered wagons to settle the North American continent, others chose to journey across the Atlantic in sailing ships to experience life in another country. What they found in Paris was a culture that was so different from the only one they knew that each of them...more McCullough begins this historical account of Americans in Paris in about 1830 and follows Parisian history, and the Americans who experienced it, through the beginning of the 20th century.

While thousands of Americans were heading west in covered wagons to settle the North American continent, others chose to journey across the Atlantic in sailing ships to experience life in another country. What they found in Paris was a culture that was so different from the only one they knew that each of them was irrevocably changed by the experience.

Focusing on a variety of individuals such as American Ambassador Elihu Washburn, medical students Elizabeth Blackwell and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sorbonne student Charles Sumner, sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, close friends and students Samuel F.B. Morse and James Fenimore Cooper, and art students John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt, McCullough chronicles the effect of Parisian art, culture, education and society on these Americans and, through them, on the history of American diplomacy, medicine, literature, invention, engineering, and, of course, art.

I found the history of the city the most fascinating aspect of the book. During the years covered by McCullough, Paris itself undergoes several transformations, beginning with the a cholera epidemic which killed about 18,000 Parisians, the overthrow of Louis Philippe, the last king of France, the Franco-Prussian War, the Siege of Paris, and the brutal Paris Commune. But with each of these, the city and its people endure, and Paris continues to be "the center of the world."

A couple of things I didn't know before reading this book:

If Samuel F.B. Morse hadn't taken an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic stance in his political leanings, he might have gotten a commission to paint a scene in the capital rotunda in Washington, and might not have gotten around to inventing the telegraph that later linked North America with Europe.

Many prominent Parisians were completely against the building of the Eiffel Tower, calling the planned monument "monstrous" "unacceptably ugly" and "more in character with America (where taste is not very developed)."

I enjoyed most of this book, I learned a lot, and of course I loved reading about the personal lives of the artists. If you have the time, it's definitely worth the read.(less)

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Jan 18, 2012 Dee rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this David McCullough history of Americans in Paris during the 1800's. I especially enjoyed the chapters covering the Franco-Prussian War, and the following Commune riots. Ihave heard recently that the World Wars of the 20th century were really begun by this war. If so, McCullough's reading of the insouciance with which the French began this war is really incredible. Unlike our recent debacle in Iraq, in this war, Louis Phillipe, the French leader realized the French were unprepar...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Allison rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really really enjoyed this book. It's a long-ish read and I had to wait for it twice from the library because I couldn't finish it in one shot but David McCullough is well worth the wait. At first I was a little confused because you're just kind of thrown into this story of all of these people during a period in Paris' history and he just tells one (very interesting) story after another. By the end I understood that he wanted to convey several things. One is that these peoples' stories were on...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Andy rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read 200 pages, then the last chapter and the epilogue. Although any given page was well-written and interesting, I kept waiting for some pay-off of synthesis explaining the point of McCullough's endless lists of loosely connected unimportant events. Do I really need to know about the sordid details of the love life of Augustus Saint-Gaudens? The historian is maybe supposed to be "objective" but the choice of stories and details is a subjective editorial decision and it would have helped to ma...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Bob Pearson rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you wanted to escape into a world of enchantment for Americans in the 19th century in Paris, this is your book. McCullough is already a favorite of mine, and this book just reconfirms my admiration for him. Yes, the 19th century - like most centuries - in reality wasn't all that great, but McCullough invites you to put on the rose-colored spectacles and walk with intelligent, artistic, enthusiastic young American women and men through the transformations in their lives that came from living i...more

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Nov 11, 2011 Cheryl Gatling added it

The premise of this book sounded too rambling to pull off. It chronicles the experiences of Americans who traveled to Paris in the 19th century. They were a diverse lot: artists, writers, statesmen, medical students, and curiosities like Tom Thumb and Catlin's American Indians. Some reviewers thought there was too much rambling, and that McCullough did not in fact pull off the feat of unifying the stories of this ex-pat bunch, but I followed him wherever he went. I found all of the stories inter...more The premise of this book sounded too rambling to pull off. It chronicles the experiences of Americans who traveled to Paris in the 19th century. They were a diverse lot: artists, writers, statesmen, medical students, and curiosities like Tom Thumb and Catlin's American Indians. Some reviewers thought there was too much rambling, and that McCullough did not in fact pull off the feat of unifying the stories of this ex-pat bunch, but I followed him wherever he went. I found all of the stories interesting. That of Samuel Morse, who poured all his ambition into being a great painter, and who invented the telegraph only after he believed he had failed as an artist, was touching. But by far, the most fascinating was the story of Elihu Washburne, who was US ambassador to Paris during the Siege of Paris, and then the Paris Commune. Washburne describes in his diary the suffering of Parisians who were burning fences and trees for firewood during the bitterly cold winter, and who, after eating most of the horses and dogs, proceeded to eat the zoo animals to keep from starving. The Paris Commune (something I remembered learning very little about) was a kind of reign of terror, with riots, assassinations, and the burning of much of the city. Through it all, Washburne exhausted himself trying to help whomever he could. Paris itself is a character in the stories. Many American visitors felt liberated by elements of the French culture: enjoyment of art and beauty, slow food, fashion, and endless strolling on the bridges and boulevards. Some were changed by the French acceptance of people of color. There was also great poverty in Paris, to the extent that so many people turned up dead in the Seine, either by murder or by suicide, that a net was strung up to fish out the bodies. In what was for me the climax of the book, the sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens, depressed and suffering from cancer, was about to kill himself, but the beauty of the Paris buildings, especially the Louvre, and the sparkling of the Seine made him happy enough that he wanted to live. Enough said.(less)

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Oct 25, 2011 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-nonfiction, biography-memoir

Between the years 1830 and 1900, Paris was considered the world's center of culture--art, architecture, literature, sculpture, and dance. It was also the center of science, especially medicine. Thousands of Americans travelled to Paris--not as tourists but to learn from, and be inspired by, its surroundings and people. I was skeptical about this book, but decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did! This meticulously researched book gives us an insider's view of Paris as seen through the eyes of Am...more

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About David McCullough

David Gaub McCullough is an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, McCullough earned a degree in English literature from Yale University. His first book was The Johnstown Flood (1968); a...more

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“George P. A. Healy; "I knew no one in France, I was utterly ignorant of the language, I did not know what I should do when once there; but I was not yet one-and-twenty, and I had a great stock of courage, of inexperience—which is sometimes a great help—and a strong desire to be my very best.” — 3 people liked it

“The thought of going abroad makes my heart Leap," (Charles) Sumner wrote. "I feel, when I commune with myself about it, as when dwelling on the countenance and voice of a lovely girl. I am in love with Europa.” — 2 people liked it

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