The Traveller The Revolutionary Life of George Forster and His Search for Humanity

About this book

The Traveller spreads out before us the life and times of George Forster, who journeyed to the far reaches of the known world, and whose radical ideas about humanity, equality and freedom challenged the worldviews of eighteenth-century Europe.

Andrea Wulf paints a picture of a man of profound curiosity and brilliance. He joined Cook's second voyage at the age of seventeen, an exploration of vast contrasts from the icy world of Antarctica to the tropical islands of the South Pacific. Studying the diverse nature, peoples and cultures he encountered, he came back imbued with a deep belief in the equality of races – an understanding far ahead of his time. On his return, he was feted in England, France, Germany and Poland, using his fame to advocate for freedom and women's rights and against empire, racism and slavery. Wulf traces how Forster – inspired by the French Revolution – became a leader of the short-lived Republic of Mainz, before being declared an outlaw in Germany and forced into exile in Paris during the Reign of Terror.

Vivid, engaging and drawing on Forster's rich correspondence, almost entirely unpublished in English, The Traveller recounts an extraordinary, passionate life largely forgotten by history.

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Biography

Andrea Wulf was born in India and moved to Germany as a child. She lives in London and is the author of several books, including The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World (Winner of the 2015 Costa Biography Award and the 2016 Royal Society Science Book Prize) and Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self. A member of PEN American Center and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she is currently a Miller Scholar at the Santa Fe Institute.