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FOUNDING GARDENERS
By: Andrea Wulf
The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation
Random House
April 2011
On Sale: March 29, 2011
352 pages
ISBN: 0307269906
EAN: 9780307269904
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
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 Jeffersonβs and John Adamsβs faith in their fledgling nation; how a trip to the great botanist John Bartramβs 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 theyβve never before been seen.
 Media BuzzAll Things Considered - April 24, 2011
On Point - April 18, 2011
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