The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris

This book, with its beautiful cover illustration of belle Paris, caught my attention in National airport last month. I seriously contemplated purchasing it on the spot - having recently returned from Paris, I had a soft spot for it - but it was incredibly heavy so I waited to borrow it from the library.

The premise of the book is that is is the story of American artists, writers, doctors, and others who traveled to Paris between, roughly, 1830 and 1870. The names are nearly all familiar: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elizabeth Blackwell, Charles Sumner, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Cassatt, Samuel Morse, James Fenimore Cooper, Henry James, John Sargent Singer, PT Barnum and Tom Thumb, Augustus Saint-Gaudens. And while the book does a fine job of following all of these individuals, where it really excels is in capturing the essence of not only the city, but the era.

David McCullough takes pains to describe Samuel Morse's frustrations in trying to patent the system that would eventually bear his name, the long hours in medical clinics and art studios, and the discourse on slavery, emancipation, and the American Civil War. McCullough is at his finest when writing of war and conflict; the time period he has chosen, beginning with the 1830 revolution and ending with the emergence of Paris as a modern city (as evidenced by the "monstrous" tower Eiffel erected on the old military parage grounds), offers no shortage of war and revolution.

Early on, it is the 1830 revolution, followed by another less than 20 years later, and then the Franco-Prussian war (and the recklessness which wrought it and, subsequently, some 75 years of French-German conflict). Most interesting to me, however, was the treatment of the Communards, a short but turbulent and terrible period in French/Parisian history about which I had previously learned little. Given that this is in the ballpark of the number killed during the Reign of Terror (obviously, precise figures are not available for either of these times), I was surprised I hadn't learned of it previously.

Overall, this was a good read, although it could be quite dense at time and, therefore, a bit of a slow go. French history or American art history buffs would enjoy it greatly, but others might find it just a bit on the dull side.