num_pages: 349
description: A groundbreaking look at the Founding Fathers and their obsession with gardening agriculture and botany by the author of Magnificent Rebels and New York Times bestseller The Invention of Nature.  Illuminating and engrossing.  The New York Times Book ReviewFor the Founding Fathers gardening agriculture and botany were elemental a conjoined interest as deeply ingrained in their characters as the battle for liberty and a belief in the greatness of their new nation.Founding Gardeners is an exploration of that obsession telling the story of the revolutionary generation from the unique perspective of their lives as gardeners plant hobbyists and farmers. Acclaimed historian Andrea Wulf describes how George Washington wrote letters to his estate manager even as British warships gathered off Staten Island; how a tour of English gardens renewed Thomas Jeffersons and John Adamss faith in their fledgling nation; and why James Madison is the forgotten father of environmentalism. Through these and other stories Wulf reveals a fresh nuanced portrait of the men who created our nation.
language: English
title: Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation
publisher: Knopf