“Not all pioneers went west,” writes historian David McCullough. For his newest book, this two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize focuses his attention on the Americans who headed across the Atlantic to Paris. McCullough tells the stories of the ambitious men and women who lived, studied and worked in Paris between 1830 and 1900 and had serious influence on American literature, medicine, art, architecture, and history. Some of the characters are well known — James Fenimore Cooper, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., and Harriet Beecher Stowe. McCullough has been visiting Paris himself for the past 50 years, getting his first look at the City of Lights in 1961. His book is titled The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris.
Listen to David Mcullough read from his new book.