The Scientist Turned Spy - Jeffersonian America by Patrick Spero Hardcover

About the Book

"A biography of Andrâe Michaux, the most famous scientific explorer of North America before Lewis and Clark, who was conscripted by the revolutionary French government as a secret agent to organize American frontiersmen to attack Spanish-controlled New Orleans, seize control of Louisiana, and establish an independent republic in the American West. New evidence also implicates Thomas Jefferson in the plot. Patrick Spero sheds new light on politics, diplomacy, scientific exploration, and the air of uncertainty and opportunity in the early republic"--

Book Synopsis

The incredible story of an explorer caught up in international intrigue at the dawn of US history

André Michaux was the most accomplished scientific explorer of North America before Lewis and Clark. His work took him from the Bahamas to Hudson Bay, and it is likely that no contemporary of his had seen as much of the continent. But there is more to his story.

During his decade-long American sojourn, Michaux found himself thrust into the middle of a vast international conspiracy. In 1793, the revolutionary French government conscripted him into its service as a secret agent and tasked him with organizing American frontiersmen to attack Spanish-controlled New Orleans, seize control of Louisiana, and establish an independent republic in the American West. New evidence also strongly implicates Thomas Jefferson in this plot. Drawing on sources buried in the vault of the American Philosophical Society, Patrick Spero offers a bona fide page-turner that sheds new light on an incipient American political climate that fostered reckless diplomatic ventures under the guise of scientific exploration, revealing the air of uncertainty and opportunity that pervaded the early republic.

Review Quotes

The Scientist Turned Spy provides ample reason to keep the Michaux Subscription List on the APS library's Treasures Cart. Michaux may never earn a place in the annals of spy craft, but Spero's account of his efforts to find support for his botanizing in the postrevolutionary United States while trying to maintain his ties to a France in turmoil helps us understand what it was like for a man of science to try to work in the unsettled political climate of the last decades of the eighteenth century.

--William and Mary Quarterly

About the Author

Patrick Spero is Executive Officer of the American Philosophical Society and the author of Frontier Rebels: The Fight for Independence in the American West, 1765-1776.