The Botanist and Citizen Genet: André Michaux’s 1793 Expedition to the Pacific and America’s First Diplomatic Crisis

In 1793, Thomas Jefferson and the American Philosophical Society became entangled in a natural history / political debacle that involved sending an ambitious French botanist named André Michaux on an expedition to the Pacific. Had it been successful, the expedition would have made the Lewis and Clark commission a decade later unwarranted, or at best, a historical footnote. But just when Michaux was set to embark, French Minister Plenipotentiary—“Citizen”—Genet arrived on the scene, drawing Michaux into a covert mission that complicated everything.

Praise for Lee Dugatkin’s Earlier Books

“Fast-paced, snappy, and suspenseful.” —Financial Times, for Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose (University of Chicago Press, 2009)

“Sparkling... part science, part Russian fairy tale, and part spy thriller.” —New York Times Book Review, for How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog) (University of Chicago Press, 2017)

About the Author

Lee Dugatkin is a professor of biology at the University of Louisville.

Also by Lee Dugatkin

Behind the Crimson Curtain: The Rise and Fall of Peale’s Museum

The Enlightenment of Gotham: How Four Men Transformed New York City at the Start of the 19th Century