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‘American Journey’ by Wes Davis review

American Journey: On the Road with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and John Burroughs by Wes Davis falls short of examining the consequences that followed the wanderlust.

I n 1918 the American industrialist Henry Ford undertook an auto-camping road trip in the Great Smoky Mountains at the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. The grand culmination of various shorter trips exploring rural America, his companions – as on the previous sojourns – were unlikely. Joining Ford was John Burroughs, an American naturalist who damned the automobile as the ‘scourge of nature’ and enjoyed an existence that was, in his words, ‘all vacation’. Having met in 1913, the pair’s obvious differences were meliorated by a shared admiration for the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, their friendship secured when Ford gave Burroughs a Model T so that he could ramble the countryside with newfound efficiency. Burroughs’ deep connection with nature, meanwhile, helped Ford better understand the agrarian past which he saw disappearing in the rearview mirror.

Ford’s friendship with Thomas Edison – the third passenger – had peaked at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915. As the pair toured various stalls which promised a brave, industrialised future, they were drawn to a display which argued that these same forward-thinking goals might be achieved through the careful management of America’s vast natural resources. By the time the two celebrities pushed their way out of this garden exhibit, Ford’s ‘agrarian nostalgia’ and Edison’s deep curiosity for botanical science had reached boiling point. Both felt that they needed to return to ‘nature’s laboratory’, and fast, if they – and America – were to reach their – and its – true potential. Various road trips in pursuit of this quest followed.

In American Journey: On the Road with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and John Burroughs Wes Davis follows Ford, Edison and Burroughs as they plan their short escapes to the country, debate – and compromise – on their diverging opinions on the First World War, and navigate the ups-and-downs of business life. A fourth character, the tyre magnate Harvey Firestone, also appears halfway through the book, joining the trio (who had taken to calling themselves ‘the Vagabonds’) for their grand 1918 expedition, which Davis only arrives at in his penultimate chapter.  

Sadly, the book falls short in its analysis of the trips’ true significance. As Davis sees it, the trio understood their trips as an opportunity to uncover ‘their own deep, rural roots and reattach themselves to the nation’s rooted, agrarian past’. To this end, they would ‘rough it’ in tents along the sides of mountains and streams, fend for themselves on the bucolic backroads of rural America and wake every morning to birdsong, all in an attempt to better understand how industrial progress and agrarian origins might coexist in efficient harmony.

Ford and Edison eagerly donned the costume of celebrity itinerants. They regularly stopped at farms, not only to camp for the night, but also to ‘play farmer’, scything grass and chopping wood. So, too, did they enjoy conversing with their gentleman-naturalist, Burroughs, on the warble of a bird, taxonomy of a plant or a line from Emerson. They revelled in the constant gaggle of fans and pressmen who sought a quippy line or a quick photo. They drove brand-new Ford automobiles loaded with every piece of gear possible, were occasionally joined by a ride-along celebrity chef, and followed by a ‘small city’ of well-outfitted luxury tents. The tour more closely resembled a glamping trip than a backwoods bivouacking slog.

It was no coincidence that three filthy-rich moguls stepped away from their day jobs in 1918 to take a trip through the Appalachians, nor was it happenstance that they brought their naturalist sidekick along. Ford viewed the trips as a chance to dissect the natural world, much as he would a car’s engine. Every meandering river or lush forest was an opportunity for future exploitation: how might this water fuel a factory? Might these rubber plants help meet the endless need for automobile tyres? Firestone and Edison felt much the same. When they weren’t cheesing for the cameras, the industrialists scoured the countryside for natural advantages over their rivals, never mind their military foes in Europe. Ford and Firestone greedily worried that America’s involvement in the war might threaten rubber supplies at home.

For his part, Burroughs seemed to see the expeditions as a pleasant escape from all sorts of domestic problems. The naturalist left his wife on her deathbed to travel with his industrialist friends, a decision he and his rich companions passed off as necessary since Burroughs might not be able to survive ‘the tragedy unfolding at home’. Burroughs would eventually learn of his wife’s death while lounging on a yacht off the coast of Cuba. A life of vacation, indeed.

What, in the end, did these gentlemen-travellers learn from their wanderings? How to better exploit the natural world’s resources, no doubt: Ford, Edison and Firestone spent the following years in a blistering construction frenzy. Ford even managed to convert Burroughs into a defender of technology’s advantages through a never-ending conveyor belt of free cars and other opulent gifts. Despite Davis’ generous judgement, one has to wonder how effective the men’s expensive, time-consuming, and ultimately self-serving peregrinations proved in preserving the ‘pastoral and agrarian values’ upon which his analysis so relies.

The real force driving Ford and company’s cross-country expedition was thus not so much engrossing themselves in the ‘rustic magic’ of the American wilderness as it was cataloguing the natural world for their – and, they assured themselves, America’s – benefit. When seen as such, Ford, Edison and Firestone’s ‘light-hearted’ road trips served as covers for their ultimate goal: industrial exploitation of the American wilderness. Burroughs served as little more than their mascot; a feel-good follower who gave their ramblings an air of conservationist legitimacy.

American Journey: On the Road with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and John Burroughs Wes Davis W.W. Norton & Company, 384pp, £30 Buy from bookshop.org (affiliate link)  

Vaughn Scribner is Associate Professor in History at the University of Central Arkansas. Under Alien Skies: Environment, Suffering, and the Defeat of the British Military in Revolutionary America is forthcoming.  

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My American Journey

• 4.5 • 83 Ratings

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A great American success story . . . an endearing and well-written book.”— The New York Times Book Review Colin Powell is the embodiment of the American dream. He was born in Harlem to immigrant parents from Jamaica. He knew the rough life of the streets. He overcame a barely average start at school. Then he joined the Army. The rest is history—Vietnam, the Pentagon, Panama, Desert Storm—but a history that until now has been known only on the surface. Here, for the first time, Colin Powell himself tells us how it happened, in a memoir distinguished by a heartfelt love of country and family, warm good humor, and a soldier’s directness. My American Journey is the powerful story of a life well lived and well told. It is also a view from the mountaintop of the political landscape of America. At a time when Americans feel disenchanted with their leaders, General Powell’s passionate views on family, personal responsibility, and, in his own words, “the greatness of America and the opportunities it offers” inspire hope and present a blueprint for the future. An utterly absorbing account, it is history with a vision.

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Excellent account of the life and career of one of the most influential military figures in the late 20th century. Highly recommend.

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I used this book in one of my graduate level courses. The was a very good read. I was impressed with his journey and how he became a major leader in our country as well as one of he most respected military leaders of our time, yet still remained humble throughout the journey.

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My American Journey Paperback – 4 March 2003

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My American Journey is the powerful story of a life well lived and well told. It is also a view from the mountaintop of the political landscape of America. At a time when Americans feel disenchanted with their leaders, General Powell's passionate views on family, personal responsibility, and, in his own words, "the greatness of America and the opportunities it offers" inspire hope and present a blueprint for the future. An utterly absorbing account, it is history with a vision.

• Print length 656 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Ballantine Books
• Publication date 4 March 2003
• Dimensions 15.62 x 3.53 x 23.42 cm
• ISBN-10 0345466411
• ISBN-13 978-0345466419
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"A book that is much like its subject--articulate, confident, impressive, but unpretentious and witty. . . . Whether you are a political junkie, a military buff, or just interested in a good story, My American Journey is a book well worth reading." -- San Diego Union Tribune "Colin Powell's candid, introspective autobiography is a joy for all with an appetite for well-written political and social commentary." -- The Detroit News

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books; Updated ed. edition (4 March 2003)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 656 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345466411
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345466419
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.62 x 3.53 x 23.42 cm
• 454 in Vietnam War Biographies (Books)
• 885 in Historical United States Biographies
• 1,052 in Black & African American Biographies

About the author

Joseph e. persico.

Joseph E. Persico Historian/Biographer

His latest book is Roosevelt's Centurions: FDR and the Commanders He Led to Victory in World War II, published by Random House and on sale as of May 28, 1213.

Prior to beginning his career as a historian and biographer, Joseph E. Persico was chief speechwriter for New York governor and later U.S. vice president, Nelson A. Rockefeller.

Of Persico's writing career, Eric Sevaried described his Edward R. Murrow: An American Original as "the definitive" biography of the broadcast pioneer. The New York Times said of Persico's The Imperial Rockefeller, "No one has written a book like this about Nelson Rockefeller before." His Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial was described by the broadcast journalist, Howard K. Smith, as "Simply the best account of the trial." This book was adapted by Turner Network Television as a miniseries that won two Emmy awards. Persico was the collaborator on former Secretary of State Colin Powell's autobiography, My American Journey which remained twenty weeks on the New York Times best seller list. His Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage also reached the best seller list and was chosen as one of the notable books of the year. His, Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour, on Armistice Day, World War I, has been described by historian, Richard Norton Smith as, "The single finest work I have read on the Great War." The Washington Post's Book World said of his Franklin and Lucy: President Roosevelt, Mrs. Rutherfurd, "Persico . . . understands that Lucy Mercer helped FDR awaken his capacity for love and compassion, and thus helped him become the man to whom the nation will be eternally in debt."

His articles have been published in American Heritage Magazine and the Military History Quarterly. He is a frequent reviewer for the New York Times Book Review and the Washington Post Book World and is a commentator on several PBS and History Channel documentaries.

Roosevelt's Centurions has been chosen as the main selection by the History Book Club and the Military book Club.

For more information go to website josephpersico.com

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AMERICAN JOURNEY

Traveling with tocqueville in search of democracy in america.

by Richard Reeves ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 28, 1982

Political scientists, sociologists, economists have reviewed Tocqueville's descriptions and prophecies—but it was a journalistic brainstorm to take the notes Tocqueville made during the 1831 tour on which Democracy in America was based (published in 1938 as Tocqueville and Beaumont in America), and "recreate Tocqueville's journey": ask the same questions of the same sorts of people; see what American democracy had become. For Reeves, it also starts as a chance to sound off, with a nod to Tocqueville, on perennial themes of his own: big government (which Tocqueville warned against), low-caliber leadership (which he decried). And the book is as much Reeves as Tocqueville throughout. But in the passage from Newport to Montgomery to Detroit to Boston and New York, the big questions that Tocqueville raised—"tyranny of the majority," commercialism, social inequality, racial discrimnation—surface again and again. In Newport, Reeves finds 79 radio stations to choose among, plus six areanewspapers and 250 different magazines. "Did information, the truth, set men free—or were individual thought and action drowning in tidal waves of facts and ideas?" In Rochester, seat of Gannett newspapers, the question takes another turn—giving the public what it wants ("Neuharth is interested in growing, not in education"). But in Rochester, too, social critic Christopher Lasch ("Democracy. . .has failed") and Marxist historian Eugene Genovese ("It's still working") differ. So the pot bubbles. Cincinnati brings a review of judicial power. Potter Stewart, a native son: "The courts have replaced the frontier" as a liberating force; Darlene Kamine, a 27-year-old attorney: "Our system is based on equal access. . .the 'little' man can go one on one with the faceless corporation" (and so feels part of the system). In Detroit come the stiffest views—from talented, successful blacks: "the old rigidity is returning. The golden time is over for people like me. The white reaction to the riots was defensive. Next time it will be offensive." Yet Reeves ends positively: democracy is effective in translating "the will of the people. . .into public policies and systems protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." No order, no rigor, no real resolution-but a lively sounding on issues that democracy itself keeps alive.

Pub Date: May 28, 1982

ISBN: 0671470671

Page Count: 404

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1982

GENERAL HISTORY

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KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

The osage murders and the birth of the fbi.

by David Grann ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2017

Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.

Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.

During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann ( The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession , 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.

Pub Date: April 18, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017

GENERAL HISTORY | TRUE CRIME | UNITED STATES | FIRST/NATIVE NATIONS | HISTORY

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BOOK TO SCREEN

by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. 

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. 

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006

ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY

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• Book Reviews
• Clarion Reviews
• Autobiography & Memoir / Art

American Journey

My life in art.

Marco Sassone Arti Grafiche Press ( 362pp ) 978-0-935194-15-9

Clarion Rating: 4 out of 5

The memoir American Journey details a celebrated painter’s reinventions and enduring passions.

Italian American painter Marco Sassone’s eloquent memoir American Journey traces his personal and career highlights.

Born in Tuscany in 1942, Sassone grew up listening to his relatives’ stories and being encouraged in his art. A move to Florence furthered his interest in drawing landscapes, which he pursued at first to receive praise, but then because of the “pleasure of discovery, of fearlessness, of freedom.” Here, his fluent childhood impressions fold into adult hindsight, balancing respectful disclosures of family stories with nostalgia for Italy and its people and sites. Sassone makes room to praise and express gratitude for those who nurtured him, including his influential teachers and his father.

Regarding art itself, rich musings arise in the text, with Sassone noting, “Art became my great savior, and youthful passion.” He began to paint street scenes on wooden panels and developed his own artistic process. The book is more discursive when it comes to detailing Sassone’s personal life in the same period, including his carefree romances in the 1960s and his eventual move to California, where he painted en plein air with the support of a patron family. His 1970s marriage is covered in swift, summary form, while other people in his life are introduced without sufficient setup: a friend is first mentioned as an art historian, though it is later revealed that she also became Sassone’s agent; Sassone’s love affair with a dancer is recalled in meandering terms.

Still, Sassone is a self-effacing narrator and a lighthearted raconteur. His prose is sharpest when it comes to relaying the pivotal moments that shaped his art: the experience of the 1966 flood in Florence; his move to San Francisco in response to personal upheavals. He discusses other artists, too, including Vincent van Gogh, to contextualize his perspective. There are intriguing insights into his own painting series as well, and into the strikes of fortune that resulted in gallery showings and sales at art festivals. Indeed, there’s a sense of romantic inevitability in these memories of going down the artist’s path.

Laguna Beach and its surroundings are detailed in vibrant terms. The book’s coverage of Sassone’s shows on Rodeo Drive and in New York is anecdotal and lively, complemented by photographs of important people and works of art that enhance their particulars. And Sassone’s recollections of his brushes with famous people, including Tina Turner and Sophia Loren, are fun additions that flesh out the art scene in his most active periods.

Exploring a painter’s unexpected international success and discussing the nature of an artist’s vision across time, American Journey is a fascinating painter’s retrospective.

Reviewed by Karen Rigby September 28, 2022

Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

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My American Journey Hardcover – Import, 9 September 1995

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• Print length 656 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Random House
• Publication date 9 September 1995
• Dimensions 16.51 x 5.08 x 24.13 cm
• ISBN-10 9780679432968
• ISBN-13 978-0679432968
• See all details

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Product description

Amazon.com review, from the inside flap, about the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0679432965
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House (9 September 1995)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 656 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780679432968
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679432968
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 454 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.51 x 5.08 x 24.13 cm
• #4,918 in United States History (Books)
• #41,135 in Biographies & Autobiographies (Books)

About the author

Joseph e. persico.

Joseph E. Persico Historian/Biographer

His latest book is Roosevelt's Centurions: FDR and the Commanders He Led to Victory in World War II, published by Random House and on sale as of May 28, 1213.

Prior to beginning his career as a historian and biographer, Joseph E. Persico was chief speechwriter for New York governor and later U.S. vice president, Nelson A. Rockefeller.

Of Persico's writing career, Eric Sevaried described his Edward R. Murrow: An American Original as "the definitive" biography of the broadcast pioneer. The New York Times said of Persico's The Imperial Rockefeller, "No one has written a book like this about Nelson Rockefeller before." His Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial was described by the broadcast journalist, Howard K. Smith, as "Simply the best account of the trial." This book was adapted by Turner Network Television as a miniseries that won two Emmy awards. Persico was the collaborator on former Secretary of State Colin Powell's autobiography, My American Journey which remained twenty weeks on the New York Times best seller list. His Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage also reached the best seller list and was chosen as one of the notable books of the year. His, Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour, on Armistice Day, World War I, has been described by historian, Richard Norton Smith as, "The single finest work I have read on the Great War." The Washington Post's Book World said of his Franklin and Lucy: President Roosevelt, Mrs. Rutherfurd, "Persico . . . understands that Lucy Mercer helped FDR awaken his capacity for love and compassion, and thus helped him become the man to whom the nation will be eternally in debt."

His articles have been published in American Heritage Magazine and the Military History Quarterly. He is a frequent reviewer for the New York Times Book Review and the Washington Post Book World and is a commentator on several PBS and History Channel documentaries.

Roosevelt's Centurions has been chosen as the main selection by the History Book Club and the Military book Club.

For more information go to website josephpersico.com

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How Paris Created America

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By Stacy Schiff

• May 27, 2011

David McCullough has stressed France’s pre-eminent role in American history for years. We would not, he has argued, have a country without the French, who have permanently and profoundly shaped us. If anyone could get away with suggesting that room be made on Mount Rushmore for Astérix it is McCullough. He seems to have had something else in mind, however. With “The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris,” he explores the intellectual legacy that France settled on its 19th-century visitors. The result is an epic of ideas, as well as an exhilarating book of spells.

The tradition began very much as a case of “Lafayette, nous voici.” The first pilgrims were nearly all single, wealthy men in their 20s, serious of purpose and ambitious by nature. A number of them had played a role in the French general’s triumphant return to America. They were provincial and inexperienced. They had never before sailed. They knew little French literature. They did not yet suspect that one could be seduced by breakfast. Following a tradition established years earlier by John Adams, they came to Paris to do their homework. Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Sumner and Samuel F. B. Morse looked to the city as library and laboratory rather than as liberation. The idea was to settle in Paris to “study hard,” a concept that would put most junior-year-abroad programs out of business.

In two panoramic chapters, McCullough introduces us to the travelers as they prepare for their adventure. “Emotions ran high on the eve of departure,” he writes. “Melancholy and second thoughts interspersed with intense excitement were the common thing.” The trip was arduous, the French drizzle constant, and bureaucracy evidently dates to Vercingetorix. But it was a fine time to make the game-­changing discovery that the Old World really was old. There were probably fewer than a thousand Americans in the city through the 1830s. All were struck by the civility of their hosts. Wine was cheaper than milk. Though the Louvre opened to the public only on Sundays, foreigners could visit throughout the week.

One American who could reliably be found there was Samuel Morse. At his side for several hours each day was his dear friend James Fenimore Cooper, whose “Last of the Mohicans” graced every Parisian bookstore window. (As Cooper noted, the French understood that novel to be the only book published in America since the time of Ben Franklin.) McCullough devotes a chapter to Morse and Cooper — the two had met at the White House in the course of Lafayette’s visit — who attest to the transformative, transfiguring power of Paris. Morse arrived as a painter and left as an inventor. He took home with him in 1832 the germ of what would become the telegraph. With a second visit, he imported Daguerre’s ideas on photography.

For most of McCullough’s travelers, Paris represented a great awakening — the blood-tingling beauty of it all! — but also an education, an invitation to see the world anew. Any doctor worth his salt hoped to study there. Charles Sumner was struck by the science but also by the black medical students. He would go on to crusade for abolition. America’s first female physician, Elizabeth Blackwell, returned to New York to found a hospital run entirely by women. (In the plus ça change department, teeth were already an American specialty. The foremost Parisian dentist in the 19th century was a Philadelphian.)

By definition McCullough’s grand tour is impressionistic and discursive, proceeding by way of crossed paths and capsule biographies. This is history to be savored rather than sprinted through, like a Parisian meal. It amounts to a meaty collection of short stories, expertly and flavorfully assembled, free of gristly theory. McCullough has his favorites, and displays a marked preference for the visual artists. Generally he describes Paris with a painter’s eye: “It was not just that they had never known a city of such size or variety, or with so much history, but they had never known one where the look and mood could be so strikingly different in different light.” Only an ingrate would question his casting decisions. As he points out, often the minor characters tell a story best. Mark Twain would not be pleased.

Occasionally McCullough pauses to pit one national treasure against another. So Harriet Beecher Stowe spends a spellbound hour before “The Raft of the Medusa”: “She was sure,” he writes, “no more powerful piece had ever been painted. It was as though this one picture had been worth the whole trip to France.” The New York sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens plays a leading role in “The Greater Journey.” He began as a cameo-cutter, an apprenticeship to which McCullough devotes several pages. And like every dual national, his narrative maintains a foot in two places. McCullough’s is as much the splendid story of a nation growing up as it is that of a city coming into its own. In the course of these pages, Paris acquires bateaux-mouches , the grands magasins , the Folies Bergère and Haussman’s avenues.

The two histories combine most powerfully in his account of the Franco-Prussian War and Elihu Washburne, America’s minister to France between 1869 and 1877. A reliable topic of conversation in Paris, food was the principal one during the German siege, when cat meat revealed itself be a delicacy and Paris solved its rat problem. By the time German troops marched down the Champs-Élysées, on March 1, l871, more than 65,000 Parisians had died. The only prominent diplomat to do so, Washburne valiantly refused to budge even through the months of the Commune, one of the bloodiest chapters in French history. His was no paradisiacal Paris; as the atrocities mounted, the distraught Washburne noted that the city was “a hell upon this earth.” At one point the Seine ran red with blood. A team of 60,000 masons would be required to put Paris back together again. On Mary Cassatt’s arrival shortly afterward, the Hôtel de Ville looked like a Roman ruin.

The making of art is inherently less dramatic than the making of history, and the Paris Commune exerts a power that John Singer Sergeant’s painting of Madame Gautreau or Saint-Gaudens’s casting of Admiral Farragut may not. Saint-Gaudens brilliantly proves McCullough’s point, however; here was American history literally forged in France. The colossal bronze statue of the Civil War hero was shipped back to New York, all 900 pounds of him, to be unveiled in May 1881. During a later Parisian stay, Saint-Gaudens cast the Sherman on horseback that stands today on the edge of Central Park. Among the reasons to visit Paris, Saint-Gaudens’s son recognized one that would migrate with the times: Only in France could an artist “measure himself with his contemporaries, place his work before the world’s most critical audience, and learn, once for all, wherein it was good and wherein bad.”

McCullough takes us from Oliver Wendell Holmes to Isadora Duncan, which is to say that “The Greater Journey” ends before Theodore Dreiser spilled the beans. Its history and art were all very well and good, but Paris was about something else altogether. That something else was sex. No one in “The Greater Journey” seems to have noticed Twain’s “delightfully immoral” working girls. Instead, John Singer Sargent’s father waxed on about probity and the domestic virtues of Parisian life. Saint-Gaudens would draw a blank when asked later to recall any “amorous adventure” abroad, although, as is clear from these pages, the sculptor had a selective memory. Very possibly much of what happened in 19th-century Paris stayed in Paris.

What McCullough’s Americans took home with them were less sentimental educations than artistic and intellectual ones; the finishing school and the movable feast came later. These years were about shaping art and principles, tasks with which France assisted by dispatching the Statue of Liberty and Tocqueville in the opposite direction. It bestowed a greater gift as well. “Coming here has been a wonderful experience, surprising in many respects, one of them being to find how much of an American I am,” Saint-Gaudens wrote. Pining for all that had once seemed unremarkable, he returned home “a burning hot-headed patriot.” That lesson too endures. Paris is the city to which good Americans go to learn that they really do love peanut butter.

THE GREATER JOURNEY

Americans in paris.

By David McCullough

Illustrated. 558 pp. Simon & Schuster. $37.50

Stacy Schiff’s most recent book is “Cleopatra: A Life.”

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