The Traveler: One Man’s Quest for Humanity from the South Seas to Revolutionary Paris by Andrea Wulf
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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Andrea Wulf once again introduces us to a person most of us have no knowledge of, but should. A few years back I read, “The Invention of Nature,” which was about the life and work of Alexander Von Humboldt. This book tells the story of the short life of George Forster, who — like von Humboldt — was a naturalist and explorer. In fact, von Humboldt considered Forster one of his mentors.

The name of this book could not be more apt. It’s not just about a man who went places, that’s a shallow definition of “traveler.” Rather, it is about one who was philosophically a traveler — i.e. one who shed biases and any pretense of superiority of his native culture over those with which he would come into contact so that his mind was ready to learn — always. George Forster traveled on Captain Cook’s second expedition, sailing through the Atlantic, across the Indian Ocean, all around Polynesia, and eventually back to England — perilously almost getting down to Antarctica in the process. George was ostensibly on the ship as assistant and draftsman to his father, Reinhold. However, George impressed more than his father, particularly through his publications after the voyage. In fact, George’s open-mindedness was all the more impressive because he got none of it from his father, who traveled about (like virtually all Westerners of that day) believing in the inherent inferiority of non-European peoples.

One reason why Forster is more obscure than his “mentee,” von Humboldt (besides the fact that von Humboldt lived / worked about twice as long) is the path of Forster’s life through the latter portion of the book. Forester’s belief in equality wasn’t limited to Pacific Islanders, he stayed true to the notion at home. He, therefore, was a supporter of the French Revolution (though he lost some taste for it in the wake of the guillotine-happy regimes that followed but still believed in the overarching goal of casting off the shackles of royalty.) Because of his support for Revolution, he was deemed a traitor by many European thinkers who had held him in the highest esteem when his support for equality was an academic abstraction (though many of them probably secretly thought him daft for believing that Tahitians [and, for that matter, women] were people, too.) At any rate, his renown plummeted, thus contributing to the fact that he’s not a household name today.

In addition to the thrill of his maritime adventures and the peril of his Revolutionary politics, there is a fair amount of family drama throughout the book. Early on said drama centers on Reinhold, but later it is the wife that cuckolds him, Therese, who takes centerstage.

I found this book highly readable. It’s not your run-of-the-mill biography of an 18th century naturalist. It’s engaging and illuminating, and I’d highly recommend it for Travelers.

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