Sunday Morning Book Talk with Andrea Wulf: Founding Gardeners

Sunday Morning Book Talk with Andrea Wulf
Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation

Join Historic Beverly for a special Sunday morning conversation with award-winning historian and bestselling author Andrea Wulf as she explores her acclaimed book Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation.

In this engaging talk, Wulf reveals how America’s founding fathers understood the natural world not simply as a backdrop to history, but as central to the creation of the nation itself. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison considered themselves first and foremost farmers, gardeners, and botanists. Their deep passion for agriculture, plants, and the landscape shaped both their personal lives and their political vision for the new republic.

Through vivid storytelling and rich historical detail, Andrea Wulf examines how nature became political in Revolutionary America, how native crops and species emerged as patriotic symbols, and why James Madison can be considered the forgotten father of American environmentalism. Blending politics, horticulture, and biography, Founding Gardeners offers a fresh and compelling perspective on the Revolutionary generation and the world they cultivated.

Andrea Wulf is an internationally celebrated historian and author whose works include Founding Gardeners and the bestselling The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World, a New York Times bestseller published in 27 languages and winner of fifteen international literary awards, including the Royal Society Science Book Prize and the Costa Biography Award. Her newest book, The Traveler, will be published in June 2026. Wulf is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in London.

Learn more about Andrea Wulf at www.andreawulf.com.

Light brunch fare included in ticket price. Book signing after the lecture.