Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

Brave Companions is a volume of seventeen previously published articles and addresses about diverse people and events selected by historian David McCullough to inspire Americans to shake off their ambivalence towards and fight their ignorance of history, which has much to teach.

McCullough's first essay, "Journey to the Top of the World" portrays the life and career of the German-born naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt. In May 1804, at 34 and still unknown, Humboldt visits President Thomas Jefferson, a "friend of science," and astounds him with stories of South and Central America. Within a yea, Humboldt reigns as the high priest of 19th-century science, but today is largely forgotten, upstaged by Lewis and Clark. Born in Berlin in 1769 into wealth, Humboldt hooks up with Aime Bonpland, gains an audience with King Charles IV and as a result unprecedented freedom to explore Spain's...