I never would have read The Greater Journey - Americans in Paris had it not been written by David McCullough. He's one of my favorite history writers and I've enjoyed all of his books.

I suppose I also needed a break from the stories of misery, war, torture and murder that I had been reading lately about Japanese prisoner's of war and the Nazis.

The Greater Journey tells the stories of doctors, artists and writers who travelled to Paris during the 1800s while the city was the center of higher learning and the arts.

It was a pleasant and relaxing tale that shed insight into the lives of people like Samuel Morse (the telegraph and the Morse Code), Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Sumner, James Fenimore Cooper, Elizabeth Blackwell (the first female doctor), Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Singer Sergeant, Mark Twain and many more.

McCullough's work reminds the readers, in an indirect way, of the influence the French have had on America's very existence as well as it's culture. This is not his stated intent and he never says it but it's on your mind from the first page to the last.

My own American friends have often been annoyed with my rants on the subject whenever someone would complain about the French. From the first days of our republic, the revolution, through 1900, the French have had a profound and positive impact on our country. I try to remind myself that "entrepreneur" is a French word. They invented the very concept which defines our society.

More than anything, the book makes one long for Paris. It's a nice escape from the pressures of life to imagine oneself strolling the boulevards or spending hours in the Louvre. I hadn't planned on going back there anytime soon but the city has just gone up on my list of places to return.

There are moments of war and strife like Bismarck's siege of Paris for four months by his Prussian army and multiple mini-revolutions where the government went back to having King then got another Napoleon (the III) and flipped leaders as often as the modern day Italians. However, the overall mood of Paris throughout the century was one of enlightenment.

I think if asked if I would recommend the book, I would answer, if you love history stories when they are just well written or if you have a particular interest in early American development or Paris, then yes. It's not really for everyone, though. It's good, I just wouldn't recommend it to someone that doesn't fit in one of those categories.