The Greater Journey

Americans in Paris

By: David McCullough

Narrated by: Edward Herrmann

Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring - and until now, untold - story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work.

After risking the hazardous journey across the Atlantic, these Americans embarked on a greater journey in the City of Light. Most had never left home, never experienced a different culture. None had any guarantee of success. That they achieved so much for themselves and their country profoundly altered American history.

As David McCullough writes, “Not all pioneers went west.”

Nearly all of the Americans profiled here - including Elizabeth Blackwell, James Fenimore Cooper, Mark Twain, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Harriet Beecher Stowe - whatever their troubles learning French, their spells of homesickness, and their suffering in the raw cold winters by the Seine, spent many of the happiest days and nights of their lives in Paris. McCullough tells this sweeping, fascinating story with power and intimacy, bringing us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens’s phrase, longed “to soar into the blue”. The Greater Journey is itself a masterpiece.

©2011 David McCullough (P)2011 Simon & Schuster

I seldom listen twice. This book is the exception.

Picking a favorite McCullough book is tough. Mornings on Horseback has been a favorite for decades, but the sweep of The Greater Journey, it’s broad cast of characters, and it’s expositions on art, war, and Paris life make it enjoyable from beginning to end.

Fascinating!

I enjoyed every moment of this vivid book: the stories, intrigue, characters, and insight into both French and American history and cultures. The chapter on medicine especially stood out. I had known generally about the many artists and writers from the US who spent time in Paris, but I had no idea that France had been the center of medical training. I'm an American living in Paris, and this book has helped me understand the genuine bond between France and the US.

Relaxingly fascinating

McCullough is simply sublime at weaving history for the layman. Being a layman himself and not a professional academic, his approach is soft, focusing on the important people of the 19th century who traveled to Paris from the US. The book gives the listener a great street-level view of French history along with a peek into 19th art, architecture, and medicine. Also, you can't beat the soothing tones of Edward Hermann.

Engaging and Informative

Although relatively lengthy, I found that this book went by quickly and in a very entertaining manner. McCullough does a very nice job weaving together the stories of many Americans who spent considerable time in Paris during the 19th Century. While some prior reviewers found the story a little disjointed, it is told in a chronological matter and I never found the story difficult to follow. The number of upheavals that Paris experienced during this Century is explained in considerable detail, describing the human suffering and the courage and humanity of American visitors during this time. But equally important is what Americans were able to take away and bring back to the U.S. that is fascinating. While many are aware that Paris representing the peak of culture at this time, I'm not so sure many of us knew the primacy of Paris in the field of medicine and the contributions it made to early American doctors. It is also interesting to follow the advance of America from a large but nascent country to standing on the precipice of greatness that would be realized during the next century that is so well described by McCullough as he describes the advances being made through the industrialization of the U.S. and innovations in communications (telegraph) by a man starting as an artist in Paris and leaving Paris with an idea about transmission of dots and dashes over wires that would dramatically change the speed of communications.

And, of course, the narration by Edward Herrmann is beyond reproach. I never tire of books narrated by Mr. Herrmann.

A Wandering Brief

I read the reviews of The Greater Journey and I was disappointed. However, I read McCullough so often and am so rarely disappointed, that I went ahead. I must join those who have written downbeat reviews.

What is the focus? Does the US owe so much of its medical and artistic heritage to France? Was Paris a fabulous place to live in the middle of the 19th Century (more so than in the 1920's)? These characters who made cameo appearances in an off Broadway play...figures of History who did not merit a biography of their own, worthy of such lengthy mention? Oh yes, there were facts and statistics that were surprising to uncover; there were descriptions of the Prussian siege of Paris that were new and well narrated, but every subject concentration jumped out of the shadows.

As always, Edward Herrmann reads so well that review is unnecessary. I simply continue to hope that it is he to whom I shall listen when I begin to listen to a long book.

I got the feeling that McCullough had done, as always, the most diligent research, had reviewed it and found no literary gel, then thrown it all into a pot and joined it 'somehow'. If you would like a snapshot of Paris of 150 years ago, you'll enjoy it. But this is not McCullough at his best. He read his own introduction and sounded halting, blurred...perhaps a little old. More's the pity. I'll look to see what he writes next. We are all allowed a miss here and there.

I Enjoyed Listening--Twice!

I bought this book because I like to listen to substantial books about history and I have enjoyed others by David McCullough. After I had finished it, my book club decided to read it. I thought I would listen to bits and pieces to refresh my memory, but I wound up going back to the beginning and listening to the whole book again, enjoying it as much the second time as I had the first.

Another amazing work of research from McCullough

Any additional comments?

This book provides the background of many of the writers and artists we thought we know. McCullough gives women writers and artists a significant amount of time in the book, when so much history does not. McCullough keeps us interested, even though there is no one story to tie the entire book together. He moves back and forth between the characters to keep you interested and to help you keep track of the decades he describes. We watch Paris and the United States take huge leaps in inagination, creativity, and technology.

A real pleasure

I love how the author brings history alive. The interplay between the growth of the United States parallel to the things that were going on in Europe was fascinating. I had no idea about the details of the war between France and Germany and it was so interesting how Mr. Washburn, the ambassador from the States, stayed in Paris and was so much help to so many people of various nationalities.

Edward Hermann is always a pleasure to listen to and makes you truly feel the breadth of the stories. Now I want to listen again and stop and research the artwork of the artists who studied and worked in Paris.

I felt it wrapped up a little quickly but still found it made sense.

My Favorite McCullough!

Who was your favorite character and why?

The women Impressionists

Any additional comments?

These questions don't relate well to this book. Need to re=do them.

A Historian for the Ages

No one teaches me more about what I feel I should know something about and do not than Mr.McCullough. From Adams to the rest of the Founding Fathers to Truman, I have been educated and entertained at every turn. This superb telling of a period and place in history that I simply was uninformed of is yet another example of a master at work. I was especially grateful to learn of the influence of Parisian medicine on the development of modern western medicine. Someone called him the American Herodotus. I simply would call him the consummate story teller and teacher. He loves his subject matter, and he loves his readers, and it always shows. I am grateful to Audible for allowing me access to so much that would be difficult for me to sit and read.