Product Description

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West

by Stephen E. Ambrose

From the New York Times bestselling author of Band of Brothers and D-Day, the definitive book on Lewis and Clark’s exploration of the Louisiana Purchase, 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 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 vivid backdrop for the expedition. 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.

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.

ISBN-13: 9780684826974
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: 06/02/1997
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 528 Paperback
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.30(d)

HammerMan's Note: Wow. If you felt soft and lazy after reading "Endurance" this won't help. Lewis and Clark and their team were tougher than nails. Packed with hand drawn maps, over 40 men and some "medicine", they dragged a keelboat and 2 canoes with tons of supplies for a 2 1/2 year round trip journey up the Missouri River looking for an all water route to the Pacific Ocean. They encountered Indians, wild animals and logistical and navigational challenges. The book describes each man eating 13 lbs. of meat per day. You will think twice about complaining the next time buy a pound of hamburger or you take a walk around the block or if a mosquito bites you. The journey was sanctioned by Thomas Jefferson who patiently sent and received letters from Lewis. Albeit slower than e-mail, information moved at the speed of foot, horse, boat, train and eventually telegraph. Even Jefferson lamented the speed of updates- much like I do now coming from my kids.

Read "Undaunted Courage."