The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream

by Kirkpatrick Sale

None of the spectators who gathered on the Hudson River shore on August 17, 1808, could have known the importance of the object they had come to see and, mostly, Robert Fulton's new steamboat. But as Kirkpatrick Sale shows in this remarkable biography, Fulton's "large, noisy, showy, fast, brash, exciting, powerful, and audacious" machine would -- for better or worse -- irrevocably transform nineteenth-century America.
Set against a brilliant portrait of a dynamic period in history, The Fire of His Genius tells the story of the fiercely driven man whose invention opened up America's interior to waves of settlers, created and sustained industrial and plantation economies in the nation's heartland, and facilitated the destruction of the remaining Indian civilizations. Probing Fulton's genius but also laying bare the darker side of the man -- and the darker side of the American dream -- Kirkpatrick Sale tells an extraordinary tale with deftness, zest, and unflagging verve.

Genres: History, Biography, American History, Nonfiction, Nautical

242 pages, Paperback

First published September 4, 2001

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really give a shit about Robert Fulton, to be honest. I just read this because I like Kirkpatrick Sale and know he's not the type to praise these famous historical "heroes." For anyone else who's not all that interested in Fulton, you'll probably be kind of bored with this one. Sale does get into some interesting subjects at times, criticizing the American Dream and warning about ambition and technological progress and shit, but for the most part this is just a biography with a slightly radical spin on it. If you are interested in Fulton and the history of the steamboat though, I would imagine that this is probably one of the better books on the subject.

[Jim Firestone · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, if at times tedious, recounting of Robert Fulton’s development of steam-boating in America.

It turns out that Fulton was much more interested in two other “inventions” of his - a submarine boat and floating mines - neither of which ever worked. Both distracted him from his eventual success with the Steam Boat.

He sounds like an energetic and charismatic mix of a genius, a charlatan, an arrogant boaster, and an egomaniac with an intense need for recognition.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Fulton was quite a character: bold, infinitely self-confident, lacking in personal integrity, and almost comically obsessed with ideas that never worked. He's the sort of shameless self-promoter that I would dismiss as a sleazeball or a quack if I met him in a professional environment. I'm glad this book exists, if only to reveal what sort of man Fulton really was.

Several little things about this book annoyed me, such as the author's awkward system for incorporating contextual asides into the main story. Also, despite the promise in the title and the introduction, the book said quite a lot about Robert Fulton and nothing much about the American Dream.