Jefferson and His Gardens

For the Founding Fathers, gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions: a conjoined interest as deeply ingrained in their characters as the battle for liberty and a belief in the greatness of their new nation. Andrea Wulf tells the story of Jefferson and the revolutionary generation from the unique perspective of their lives as gardeners, plant hobbyists, and farmers. She 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 Jefferson’s and John Adams’ 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 Jefferson and the men who created our nation.