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Undaunted Courage : Meriwether Lewis Thomas Jefferson And The Opening Of The American West
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$ 46.76
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| Retail Value |
$ 59.95 |
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$ 13.19 (22%) |
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| Item Number |
836749 |
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Item Description...
Product Description
In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a voyage up the Missouri River, across the forbidding Rockies, and -- by way of the Snake and mighty Columbia -- down to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and his partner, Captain William Clark, endured incredible hardships and witnessed astounding sights. With great perseverance, they worked their way into an unexplored West and when they returned two years later, they had long since been given up for dead. Lewis is supported by a variety of colorful characters: Jefferson and his vision of the West; Clark, the artist and map-maker; and Lewis -- the enigma, who let brilliantly but considered the mission a failure After suffering several periods of depression -- and despite his status as a national hero -- Lewis died mysteriously, apparently by his own hand.
Outline Review
A biography of Meriwether Lewis that relies heavily on the journals of both Lewis and Clark, this book is also backed up by the author's personal travels along Lewis and Clark's route to the Pacific. Ambrose is not content to simply chronicle the events of the "Corps of Discovery" as the explorers called their ventures. He often pauses to assess the military leadership of Lewis and Clark, how they negotiated with various native peoples and what they reported to Jefferson. Though the expedition failed to find Jefferson's hoped for water route to the Pacific, it fired interest among fur traders and other Americans, changing the face of the West forever.
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Item Specifications...
Dimensions: Length: 5.92" Width: 5.16" Height: 2.29"
Weight: 1.5 lbs.
Binding CD
Release Date Jun 1, 2001
Publisher Simon & Schuster
ISBN 0743507843
EAN 9780743507844
UPC 076714059955
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Availability 2 units.
Availability accurate as of May 30, 2012 03:17.
Usually ships within one to two business days from La Vergne, TN.
Orders shipping to an address other than a confirmed Credit Card / Paypal Billing address may incur and additional processing delay.
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More About Barrett Whitener Stephen E. Ambrose
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | Mostly about Meriwether Lewis. Nov 26, 2009 |
I hardly knew anything about the expedition before this book which provides a lot of incredible information from Meriwether Lewis. But as the book describes, it's all from Lewis. We don't know anything about Clark's version or any of the other men who kept journals. The expedition split up several times and we never know what happened to any of the other groups, we only know of Lewis' groups.
Considering all the interesting things that happened to him I'm sure those other men had just as interesting stories of their own.
If you're into knowing everything about the trip, this should be ONE of the books you read. | | | | Well written, but forgot about Clark Nov 22, 2009 |
| Ambrose shows his literary expertise as he chronicles the most famous exploring duo in American history. Using journals and other first person witness accounts, the reader is treated to a detailed description of Lewis and Clark's expedition to the pacific. While the research was extensive, Ambrose does relegate Clark to a minor role as he concentrates more on Lewis and Jefferson which would undoubtedly upset Lewis who consistently emphasized the equality of the two captains. The reader should not be surprised, as the title emphasizes this point about the thesis. Despite this pro-Lewis bias, Undaunted Courage is a great resource for information on the Corps of Discovery. | | |  | Let's not confuse the quality of the book with the glory of its subject Nov 15, 2009 |
I want to offer a more reserved review of this book (i.e., one that is not nearly as gushing as many), for which I will probably be flamed. Most readers seem to love the book, and I too was anxious to get into it each evening and finished it with a new appreciation and interest for the L&C expedition, but I have a few criticisms of the book itself (along with some deserved praise).
Ambrose did succeed in doing what he was so good at, which was to take a big-scope historical topic and push it down to "our level," all in a conversational and personal tone that makes the reader feel that Ambrose is sitting with you by the fireplace, sharing something interesting that he just read in the newspaper. It's pleasant at times, but at others it seems inappropriate. I felt that there were too many places where Ambrose injected his personal conclusions and suppositions into the narrative (e.g., the topic of Lewis' death is a mystery that will never be solved or settled yet Ambrose really seems to have framed much of the entire book as a set-up for his own theories of Lewis' brilliant despondency, and, really, do any of us really care about Ambrose's haughty 21st century critique of Lewis shooting a potentially superior enemy combatant in the gut?).
Ambrose relied heavily (as one must) on the Lewis and Clark journals, from which he quoted often. As a professional historian, he missed an opportunity to add real value to his work by giving the reader more context and perspective from outside of the journals. For example, Ambrose does point out the one precious journal entry of Lewis that sets out a "day in the life" narrative of a hunting trip. Ok. But I wish that Ambrose would have offered more of that, just based on our very best speculation and knowledge. What did these guys do every night? What did they wear (and wear out, and then what did they wear?)? What were the nightly camps like, exactly? I have no idea. For the investment of reading this book, I can now hold my own with the average tourist in line at a Lewis and Clark related site (as I experienced recently), but I don't really know if I am much more informed beyond that. In the end, this book is really just a heavily annotated and digested edition of the journals.
Of course, the journals do not provide the biographical context nor any prelude or postlude information, but if it is the journey itself that you want to know about, then the journals are what you should read. In reviewing the journals recently, I noticed that the authors (L&C) virtually stopped writing in the last few weeks of the journey, as they raced down the Missouri to St. Louis. Ambrose did the same in his book - only he failed to point out his reason (that is, that L&C gave him no material to work from). I thought that he was simply as bored with the topic as his readers would become.
Anyway - this is a good book that serves as an adequate introduction to the topic, or as a one-stop summary of the L&C expedition that could carry you a lifetime if you never plan to read anything else. It is not, and should not be regarded, as the definitive work on the topic. For that, one should consult the originals, Lewis and Clark. | | |  | True non-revised history Nov 11, 2009 |
| In an age where history is constantly being revised, this story of a group with stones the size of basketballs should be required reading for every politician. | | | | Marvelous book, a must read Nov 4, 2009 |
Lewis and Clark were amazing men who went into the West before anyone else had. They wrote about it. A must read for the adventurous. A great story and true.
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