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I recently acquired "Undaunted Courage" as a gift and have been enjoying the great way Ambrose brings to life the characters and the activities. Colter was a Virginian by birth who had moved to Maysville at age 5. Also, earlier, years prior to the Lewis & Clark expedition, Ambrose notes that on a trip down the Ohio River Lewis stopped in various river towns and lists ".Limestone, Maysville,.". When Lewis & Clark traveled down the Ohio River, there is evidence that they stopped, at least for a day, perhaps more, in Maysville, KY. The latter suggests that Ambrose perhaps spent more time researching other parts of the expedition than time spent in this segment of the country. And it is there, in Maysville, that they met, recruited and signed on the later-to-be-significant John Colter. I noted, however, as Lewis and Clark journeyed down the Ohio River prior to actually embarking on their adventure, that Ambrose completely omits what I think to be an important part of the trip, plus he makes a very problematic error. It is more likely that the expedition met up with him in Maysville than in Pittsburgh, as Ambrose suggests.
Ambrose notes in the book, incorrectly, according to my resources, that Lewis signed Colter on in Pittsburgh. In Maysville there is an historical marker that speaks of Lewis & Clark's time in Maysville during that venture, and of their signing on John Colter. Actually, Limestone and Maysville are one and the same town--the name of the town was changed from Limestone to Maysville in 1787. Even so, I think Ambrose's treatise on the expedition is a wonderful and well-written description of this historical event.
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.
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. 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. 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.
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. I have no idea. 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. 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. Ok. 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. 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. 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. What were the nightly camps like, exactly. 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. It is not, and should not be regarded, as the definitive work on the topic.
What did these guys do every night. It's pleasant at times, but at others it seems inappropriate. Louis. But I wish that Ambrose would have offered more of that, just based on our very best speculation and knowledge. What did they wear (and wear out, and then what did they wear). 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). For that, one should consult the originals, Lewis and Clark.
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.
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