“Nothing is so irresistible as the truth.”
That was the maxim of George Forster, a humanist ahead of his time, whose short-but-restless life found him at the center of revolutions in science, art and politics during the tumult of late 18th-century Europe.
Forster traveled the world with Captain James Cook when he was just a boy, and died a staunch supporter of the French Revolution, railing against tyranny and despotism, even though it threatened his life and reputation.
He was a feminist. He denounced racism and imperialism and extolled the virtues of human rights and universal dignity. So why have so few people heard of him?
Andrea Wulf set out to correct the record with her new book, “The Traveler: One Man’s Quest for Humanity from the South Seas to Revolutionary Paris,” which is out now. She discusses the book with Here & Now‘s Indira Lakshmanan.
Book excerpt: ‘The Traveler’
By Andrea Wulf
From “The Traveler” © 2026 by Andrea Wulf. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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