Review by Choice Review
John Ledyard (1751-1789), the most noted American world traveler of the Revolutionary generation, now has a modern biography that sets his remarkable, if short, career in the broad context of an evolving British Empire, Enlightenment social theory, and the Republic of Letters. "Ledyard," the author notes, "was not simply an adventurer and traveler. He was also a colonizer and an empire builder." Yet he was an odd imperialist, largely indifferent to political power and nationalist ambition and with only a perfunctory interest in economic exploitation. More important, "For him, empire was also a set of attitudes, a frame of mind, an aesthetic, and a way of relating to distant, foreign worlds." From the Pacific, through most of Europe, across Russia, and finally to Egypt, Ledyard's trajectory, literary efforts, and frustrations illuminate much about patronage networks, imperial competition, 18th-century ethnography, and the meaning of frontiers and boundaries, both geographic and social. Exploring this complex experience insightfully is what makes this a superb biography. Gray (Florida State Univ.) gives vivid particularity to recent historiography on the early modern transoceanic world. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic libraries. R. P. Gildrie Austin Peay State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
