Review: Founding Gardeners

Title: Founding Gardeners: The revolutionary generation, nature, and the shaping of the American nation

Author: Andrea Wulf

Date finished: 6 June 2016

This book combined two of my favorite things: colonial/revolutionary American history and gardening. I enjoyed it so much that I tried to slow down and savor it. While the "Founding Fathers" are so often selectively quoted by politicians to support their various viewpoints on a wide spectrum of modern topics, their viewpoints on nature, farming, and agriculture are quite overlooked despite how heavily it influenced their political thought at the time.

Agriculture was a huge part of the lives of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. Yes, it was their income and an enjoyable hobby, but they viewed agriculture and small-scale farming as essential to the building of a new nation. Partly because it would bring freedom and independence from the Old World, but also because the founding fathers romanticized farming as the most virtuous occupation. It made men frugal, independent, and incorruptible--just the sort of people a republic needs! So they devoted considerable time and energy to experimenting with the latest agricultural methods, finding new varieties of edible, ornamental and profitable plants with a special focus on native species, and sharing their knowledge and seeds with others. Madison even gave a radical speech in 1818 about man's reckless use of the environment and warned that the balance between man and nature was key to the long-term survival of mankind.

While I might not dote on my manure/compost pile quite like John Adams, I enjoyed being able to share in the Founding Fathers' passion of things that grow through the pages of this book.