The Greater Journey

 

The Greater Journey by David McCullough is an epic story of how America was shaped. Unlike the common belief that America was this global force that prospered overnight, this book gives an insight of the actual story of how America was molded by nineteenth century Paris. McCullough shows the intellectual legacy the 1800’s Paris leaves on it’s American visitors. People such as James Fennimore Cooper, Samuel Morse, and Charles Sumner went to Paris originally to study and educate their minds from 1830 until the 1900’s. However, they ended up exporting many ideas and inventions that profoundly altered American history. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female physician in America, returned from Paris to open a hospital that was run entirely by women. Samuel Morse, a devastated artist, returned to become the inventor of the telegraph. The Greater Journey is a collection of short stories put together masterfully to portray the American artists, writers, doctors, and politicians evolution throughout this historic journey.  This book is made for people who are interested in the unbiased truth of how America emerged and became what it is today. McCullough is a historical nonfiction writer. This book is as exhilarating and exciting as a fictional thriller that you cannot put down until the end.