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The Greater Journey

Americans in Paris, 1830-1900
Sep 27, 2012ALLAN JOHN FLETCHER rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
While I learned a lot about the city of Paris and the Americans who have visited it between the 1830s to the end of the nineteenth century, McCullough’s approach is staid, elitist and old school. Horatio Alger is an unmentioned presence, and he clearly admires ambition, success, fame and power. The Greater Journey is a history of “winners”—a kind I rarely read anymore. The book’s premise is interesting, but the results are disappointing. I’m neither as sympathetic to any of the reigning monarchs as this writer evidently is nor as dismissive of the radical forces that struggled to overthrow them. Many voices are left out, and there’s much more to the narratives that are included than this author is willing to relate (or, in all likelihood, capable of seeing).