![Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation [Hardcover]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEs9uhoIIU7N9UZbJdEqVZJY9nNHsaRqDmroWPEoZUrs49SYvYfOF2IVJe_bSRxrZpdO0Id-I_U8IzzWaF1DrjhZjOdqFLK_Uq6U_T2erZKQ7GuHDj5loXxn9TSbSOQgRg9h68qwY7n1o/s400/Founding-Gardeners-US-high.jpg)
For the founding fathers, gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions, as deeply ingrained in their characters as their belief in liberty for the nation they were creating.
Andrea Wulf reveals for the first time this aspect of the revolutionary generation. She describes how, even as British ships gathered off Staten Island, George Washington wrote his estate manager about the garden at Mount Vernon; how a tour of English gardens renewed Thomas Jefferson’s and John Adams’s faith in their fledgling nation; how a trip to the great botanist John Bartram’s garden helped the delegates of the Constitutional Congress break their deadlock; and why James Madison is the forgotten father of American environmentalism. These and other stories reveal a guiding but previously overlooked ideology of the American Revolution.
Founding Gardeners adds depth and nuance to our understanding of the American experiment and provides us with a portrait of the founding fathers as they’ve never before been seen.
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Review
It is a pleasure to report that this is one of those unique and rare books that is both a delight to read as well as being chock full of important information and significant insights. The author, a Brit, argues that "it's impossible to understand the making of America without looking at the founding fathers as farmers and gardeners" (p. 4). To support her thesis, the author looks at principally Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison, although Franklin, George Mason, and George Wythe (among others) also make appearances. All of these four were deeply involved in agriculture and gardening, in addition to their political lives. I was surprised to learn how grumpy old John Adams turned into a happy camper when working on his farm or in his Philadelphia greenhouse (a gift of Abigail). While I knew that Jefferson was passionate about plants, so it was true of the other three as well, especially Washington who was quite the student of agriculture.
The author focuses upon some key events to develop her argument. Washington's American garden of native plants and shrubs is discussed. The 1786 garden tour that TJ and Adams made in England where they visited many of the famouns English gardens and discovered them to be largely populated with American plants. This was the work of the little-known John Bartram (1699-1777), who shipped American plants and seeds to England from his Philadelphia nursery, as well as supplying the framers. The author's "The Brother Gardeners" looks at these splendid English gardens and the role Bartram played in supplying American plants for them. One chapter deals with the deadlocked Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, which the author suggests might have been able to reach compromise due to a visit of some key delegates to Bartram's nursery for a refreshing break. While some have criticized this suggestion, I found it interesting, and whether one agrees with it or not does not affect the great value and enjoyment of the book.
Next we follow the 1791 New England purported garden tour of Jefferson and Madison, which was probably more political than botanical. A chapter discusses the selection and creation of Washington, D.C. The final chapters focus on Jefferson and Madison. Of course who better than Jefferson to organize and direct the Lewis and Clark expedition which resulted in a treasure trove of new trees and plants. TJ's retirement at Monticello is for me one of the most interesting stages of his life, and he was extensively involved in agricultural research during this period--as an "experimental gardener" to use the author's description. And the more shadowy Madison emerges as the father of the American environmental movement with his 1817 address to the Agricultural Society of Albemarle (Virginia).
The author explains how plants were more than just a hobby; these patriots saw American plants and shrubs as one basis for continued independence since they supplied our needs domestically. These framers shared the view that a nation of independent small farmers would foreclose the inherent corruption of laborers forced to survive in "putrid" cities. How slavery fitted into all this is also touched upon by the author. The author's research (reflected in 81 pages of notes, including important references to electronic data sources) is awesome. The book has 16 color plates and 19 B&W illustrations. I knew nothing of plants, but the author's skillful narrative is rich in descriptive power. The book itself is beautifully produced, from the colorful dust jacket to the fine paper--yet another example of the superb work done by Berryville Graphics in Virginia. Accept the author's argument or not, this book stands as a unique and insightful study of the sometimes mythical "founders".
Reviewed by: Ronald H. Clark (WASHINGTON, DC USA)
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About the author
Andrea Wulf was born in India and moved to Germany as a child. She lives in Britain where she trained as a design historian at the Royal College of Art. Her book "Founding Gardeners" was published in spring 2011 and went to number 32 on the New York Times Best Seller List . She is the author of “The Brother Gardeners. Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession” and the co-author of “This Other Eden: Seven Great Gardens and 300 Years of English History”. She has written for the Sunday Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Garden and Kew Magazine, and reviews for several newspapers, including The Guardian, New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement and the Mail on Sunday.
She has lectured widely to large audiences at the Royal Geographical Society and Royal Society in London, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Monticello and the Missouri Botanic Garden amongst many others (see events). She is a three-time fellow of the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello.
She is a regular contributor on BBC radio and television.
The “Brother Gardeners” was long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2008, the most prestigious non-fiction award in the UK and won the American Horticultural Society 2010 Book Award as well as the CBHL 2010 Annual Literature Award.
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The Psychopath Test is a fascinating journey through the minds of madness. Jon Ronson's exploration of a potential hoax being played on the world's top neurologists takes him, unexpectedly, into the heart of the madness industry. An influential psychologist who is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are, in fact, psychopaths teaches Ronson how to spot these high-flying individuals by looking out for little telltale verbal and nonverbal clues. And so Ronson, armed with his new psychopath-spotting abilities, enters the corridors of power. He spends time with a death-squad leader institutionalized for mortgage fraud in Coxsackie, New York; a legendary CEO whose psychopathy has been speculated about in the press; and a patient in an asylum for the criminally insane who insists he's sane and certainly not a psychopath.
Ronson not only solves the mystery of the hoax but also discovers, disturbingly, that sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are, with their drives and obsessions, as mad in their own way as those they study. And that relatively ordinary people are, more and more, defined by their maddest edges.
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Review
'People who are psychopathic prey ruthlessly on others using charm, deceit, violence or other methods that allow them to get what they want. The symptoms of psychopathy include: lack of a conscience or sense of guilt, lack of empathy, egocentricity, pathological lying, repeated violations of social norms, disregard for the law, shallow emotions, and a history of victimizing others.'
- Robert Hare, Ph.D
I've been hooked on Jon Ronson's writing since 'The Men Who Stare at Goats' was first published. Ronson cuts right to the heart of important topics by having the guts to ask the difficult questions. His literary style is equal parts journalistic rigour, deep compassion and incisive observational humour that often shines the light of ridicule on darker human behaviours. 'The Psychopath Test' explores psychiatry, psychopathology, medication and incarceration of 'dangerous' individuals. The book reads like a mystery novel, which - driven by Ronson's compelling prose - makes it difficult to put down.
The story begins with a meeting between Ronson and a history student who has received a cryptic book called 'Being or Nothingness' in the mail. The same book has been received by several individuals around the globe, most of whom work in the field of psychiatry. The book contains 42 pages, every second one blank. (This made me wonder...in 'The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy', the ultimate answer to life, the Universe and Everything was 42. Was this relevant? Was the mysterious author of 'Being or Nothingness' implying that his cryptic messages, if decoded, could lead to enlightenment?)
Ronson's journey leads him to 'Tony' in Broadmoor, who - when charged with GBH and facing prison 12 years earlier - had faked insanity in the hope of being sent to a comfortable psychiatric hospital. Instead, he had been sent to Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital (home to Britain's most dangerous psychotic prisoners), where he was being held indefinitely. Tony explains that he had picked characteristics of various movie lunatics then pieced them together into his 'insane' persona. Getting into Broadmoor had been easy, but getting out was proving immeasurably harder. A senior psychiatrist admits to knowing that Tony isn't insane, as a truly insane person wouldn't manufacture a new personality in the hope of avoiding prison...but a manipulative psychopath would.
Ronson meets Bob Hare, creator of the PCL-R Test, a 20-step Psychopath Checklist which gives individuals scores between zero and forty; the higher the score, the more psychopathic the person. Hare reveals that inmates at prisons and psychiatric institutions aren't the only ones who score highly on his 'psychopath test': many CEOs and directors of corporations qualify as psychopaths too. This prompts Ronson to wonder 'if sometimes the difference between a psychopath in Broadmoor and a psychopath on Wall Street was the luck of being born into a stable, rich family.'
Al Dunlap closed Shubuta's Sunbeam factory (the economic heart of that community), showing no empathy while firing workers and effectively killing the town. While laying off employees, he even spouted jokes such as, "You may have a sports car, but I'll tell you what you don't have. A job!" Bob Hare flags Dunlap as a psychopath, so Ronson sets out to meet the man. When Ronson asks probing questions based on the PCL-R checklist, Dunlap's responses mark him as a textbook psychopath.
Hare explains the science of psychopathology: a part of the brain called the amygdala doesn't function in psychopaths as it does in other human beings. When a regular person experiences extreme violence or carnage (or even photographs of such scenes), his amygdala becomes overstimulated, provoking an extreme anxiety response in the central nervous system. When a psychopath experiences the same stimuli, his amygdala does not respond: no anxiety response occurs. This explains the psychopath's lack of empathy.
'The Psychopath Test' is a compelling read. Ronson's fluid style is the perfect balance of rigorous research, keen observation, poignancy and humour. Congratulations to Jon Ronson on another phenomenal achievement.
Reviewed by: Monty Archibald "HeavyMetalMonty" (west coast of Scotland)
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About the author
Jon Ronson is a writer and documentary filmmaker. His books Them: Adventures with Extremists and The Men Who Stare at Goats were both international bestsellers. The Men Who Stare at Goats was released as a major motion picture in 2009, starring George Clooney. Ronson lives in London.
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Heaven Is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.
Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how "reaaally big" God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help us.
Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.
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Review
This is a story about a boy and his miraculous adventure to heaven and back. What this family has to go through in a year's time is unbelievable.
First Sonja and Todd Burpo have a child named Cassie in the city of Imperial, Nebraska. It was their first born child. Then they try for another child, but Sonja, the mother, has a miscarriage.
They were very upset about this, but they were excited and relieved to find out that they were having another child. His name was Colton. Colton's father, Todd, had a bad 6 months. He broke his legs, had kidney stones and had surgury for breast cancer.
When Colton was about 4 years old, he complained about a stomach ache. They took him to the hospital and they diagnosed him with a stomach flu. The next day the were happy to see that he was perfectly fine, or so they thought, they next day. They decided to go on a small vacation. They went to the Denver Butterfly Pavilion.
Then that night Cassie and Colton complained on stomach aches. Colton stayed up all night, vomiting. The next day, Cassie was okay, but Colton was not. They decided to take him back to the hospital. They figured out, he had a ruptured appendix and an abscess. He automatically went into surgury. The surgury went well.
A few days later, the doctors said he could go home. Everybody was so happy. When they got in the elevator to go home, the doctor called Colton back and said that he had to go into another surgury. He went back and this surgury went well.
A few days later, they told Colton he could actually go home. They got home and Colton started telling his family the stories about heaven. He told what angels looked like, what God looked like, what Jesus looked like and what the throne looked like. He told things about heaven that his father, a pastor, didn't even know.
At first Todd, Colton's father, thought Colton was making the whole thing up but soon figured out that he wasn't. Colton was saying things that his father knew, he couldn't have known, unless he was there.
Reviewed by: Rhonda L. Cochran "All About Shopping" (Lynchburg, OH)
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Todd Burpo is pastor of Crossroads Wesleyan, a wrestling coach, a volunteer fireman, and he operates a garage door company with his wife, Sonja, who is also a children’s minister, busy pastor’s wife, and mom. Colton, now an active 11-year-old, has an older sister Cassie and a younger brother Colby. The family lives in Imperial, Nebraska.
Lynn Vincent is the New York Times best-selling writer of Same Kind of Different as Me and Going Rogue: An American Life. The author or co-author of nine books, Vincent is a senior writer for WORLD magazine and a lecturer in writing at the King’s College in New York City. She lives in San Diego, California.
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Bestselling author, speaker, and founder of the Secret Keeper Girl conferences, Dannah Gresh shares with moms the secret to helping today’s girls grow up confident, grace-filled, and strong in their faith.
Studies show that the foundation for an emotionally healthy teen girl is built between the ages of 8-12 and that a good relationship with mom is one of the most important factors. So when the world wants girls to grow up too fast, how does a mother help her young daughter navigate the stormy waters of boy-craziness, modesty and body image, media, Internet safety, and more? With a warm, transparent style, Dannah Gresh shares six ways a mom can help protect and guide her daughter, including:
- help her celebrate her body in a healthy way
- unbrand her when the world tries to buy and sell her
- unplug her from a plugged-in world
- dream with her about her prince, and more
This wonderful resource also provides moms a Connection IQ Inventory to test their mom- daughter relationship, creative and fun activities to do together, and Scriptures for the mom to pray for her daughter.
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Review
I have been affected in a positive way by what Dannah Gresh has written. She delivered a wonderful read.I devoured the words and content and quickly passed the title on to many other mothers. Her love and concern for children is evident in her writings and her research and knowledge are thorough. She not only talks about the problems, but she gives you solutions. This book is an insightful look at the culture that we are up against.(Take note on the section where celebrities do not allow their own children to watch t.v. )
I have been encouraged to use the knowledge to combat the culture and make a stand on the behalf of all girls the Lord has laid on my heart, especially my granddaughter.
Mothers, Grandmothers, God-mothers, Teachers, Aunts... ALL of you who have a love for Girls should purchase this book. It is a delight even if you have older girls.
I am certain that an investment in this book will yield a profitable return!
Reviewed by: B. Wise "Wisebuy" (Carrollton, VA)
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Dannah Gresh, a best-selling author and sought-after speaker. Her best-selling titles include And the Bride Wore White and 2010’s best-selling CBA youth book, Lies Young Women Believe co-authored with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. She says the most important book she has or will ever write is What Are You Waiting For: The One Thing No One Ever Tells You About Sex, which traces the Hebrew language of sexuality from Genesis to Revelation answering every question a heart could ask. She has long been at the forefront of the movement to encourage tweens and teens to be modest and to pursue purity and is the founder of Secret Keeper Girl a live tour event for tween girls and their moms.
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