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Books : Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West (Lewis & Clark Expedition)In association with Amazon.com List Price: $30.00 Amazon.com's Price: $19.80 You Save: $10.20 (34%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 917.8042 EAN: 9780684811079 ISBN: 0684811073 Label: Simon & Schuster Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 512 Publication Date: February 15, 1996 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Studio: Simon & Schuster Sales Rank: 53268 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: From the bestselling author of the definitive book on D-Day comes the definitive book on the most momentous expedition in American history and one of the great adventure stories of all time. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a voyage up the Missouri River to the Rockies, over the mountains, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, and back. Lewis was the perfect choice. He endured incredible hardships and saw incredible sights, including vast herds of buffalo and Indian tribes that had had no previous contact with white men. He and his partner, Captain William Clark, made the first map of the trans-Mississippi West, provided invaluable scientific data on the flora and fauna of the Louisiana Purchase territory, and established the American claim to Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Ambrose has pieced together previously unknown information about weather, terrain, and medical knowledge at the time to provide a colorful and realistic backdrop for the expedition. Lewis saw the North American continent before any other white man; Ambrose describes in detail native peoples, weather, landscape, science, everything the expedition encountered along the way, through Lewis's eyes. Lewis is supported by a rich variety of colorful characters, first of all Jefferson himself, whose interest in exploring and acquiring the American West went back thirty years. Next comes Clark, a rugged frontiersman whose love for Lewis matched Jefferson's. There are numerous Indian chiefs, and Sacagawea, the Indian girl who accompanied the expedition, along with the French-Indian hunter Drouillard, the great naturalists of Philadelphia, the French and Spanish fur traders of St. Louis, John Quincy Adams, and many more leading political, scientific, and military figures of the turn of the century. This is a book about a hero. This is a book about national unity. But it is also a tragedy. When Lewis returned to Washington in the fall of 1806, he was a national hero. But for Lewis, the expedition was a failure. Jefferson had hoped to find an all-water route to the Pacific with a short hop over the Rockies-Lewis discovered there was no such passage. Jefferson hoped the Louisiana Purchase would provide endless land to support farming-but Lewis discovered that the Great Plains were too dry. Jefferson hoped there was a river flowing from Canada into the Missouri-but Lewis reported there was no such river, and thus no U.S. claim to the Canadian prairie. Lewis discovered the Plains Indians were hostile and would block settlement and trade up the Missouri. Lewis took to drink, engaged in land speculation, piled up debts he could not pay, made jealous political enemies, and suffered severe depression. High adventure, high politics, suspense, drama, and diplomacy combine with high romance and personal tragedy to make this outstanding work of scholarship as readable as a novel. Amazon.com 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. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - A Story of True CourageWow! This was the first Stephen Ambrose book I ever read. Now I'm hooked. His attention to detail is incredible. How those guys survived attacks by savages, grizzly bears, and other forces of nature is hard to imagine. Ambrose takes the reader step-by-step through the journey, from the inception, all the way to the explorers' triumphant journey home, and beyond. Once you read this book, you will probably become a big Stephen Ambrose fan like me. I highly recommend ... Read More Rating: - A gift to all generations of Americans who followWith so many reviews sometimes I hesitate to add one more. This is a gift, a treasure to all Americans who come after us. All good stories do not necessarily have the benefit of good story tellers and vice versa. I believe this is THE reason this book is so powerful. L&C is a tale of the stars aligning at exactly the right moment with precisely the right cast there to undertake the adventure. Behind it all is the vision of Jefferson who saw with perfect clarity what needed to be done (the La. Purchase) ... Read More Rating:  - Very Irked I believe this book was listed as Like New, Maybe Read Once. Yes, it did look New, but it was absolutely saturated in cigarette smoke as if someone had smoked the whole time it had been read- not just the outside as if packed by a smoker. There was NO WAY I could hold it in front of me to read for hours- the stench was sickening as well as a health risk for me as an athsma patient. So, I put it out in the garage to see if it could be aired out, but after all this time, the smell has not dissipated much. ... Read More Rating: - Must ReadI would recommend this book/audio to anyone. It is fasinating to any one interested in US History and elploration of American. The book manymaps to relate to during yoour read. I later listened to the audio a year later and I really enjoyed it so much the second time through. I had read book reviews before and this one was claimed to the best about Lewis and Clark. Thumbs up! Rating: - ExtraordinaryRead this as a first edition hardback---my Amazon reviewing is a little behind, to say the least---outstanding book. The best book on L&C in print. Ambrose collaborated on a book with Nat'l Geo that is spectacular as well. OUTSTANDING from cover to cover. If you read only one book on the topic, read this one---and prepare to be hooked. Browse for similar items by category:
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