The Scientist Turned Spy

Patrick Spero

The Scientist Turned Spy
Format
Hardback
Publisher
University of Virginia Press
Country
United States
Published
17 September 2024
Pages
280
ISBN
9780813952185

The Scientist Turned Spy

Patrick Spero

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

AndrE Michaux was the most famous 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.

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