Chapter 1: The Quest for American Giants

One of the long-standing stereotypes about the United States is that everything here is larger than life. Whether it's oversized cars, portion sizes, or even attitudes, this phenomenon has been part of American culture for centuries. This obsession with size traces back to the 1780s when Thomas Jefferson embarked on a rather eccentric mission to demonstrate that American animals surpassed their European counterparts in size.

The French played a pivotal role in this narrative. For many years, they took pleasure in deflating American pride. In the late 18th century, it became a trend among French scientists to label America as “degenerate.” They theorized that, as a newer land recently risen from the sea, America was inherently too marshy to support significant flora and fauna. Georges-Louis Leclerc, the Comte de Buffon, and other French naturalists asserted that plants and animals in America would “shrink and diminish under a niggardly sky and unprolific land.”

These French scientists pointed to