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Summary: Audio Tapes
Review: Don't buy the abridged audio version. It has four tapes, and the story is excellent. But one doesn't get to the homeward bound story until side B of tape 4. You know they've abridged it too much and there are many great stories that have been left out. Find an unabridged tapes of the story, it is too good to leave out a word. I felt cheated out of knowing what happened.
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Summary: Great writing of a great adventure!
Review: This is another superbly written book by Ambrose. I found myself absorbed into the whole adventure of Lewis and Clark from start to finish. I enjoyed learning relative historical aspects around the trip, such as how the politics of the day effected the trip.
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Summary: Don't give up on this book
Review: It was a little slow for the first 100 pages, but then delivered a riveting experience. This book changed my impression of the age -- including Jeffersonian politics, life on the frontier, the conquest of the continent, technology, and the American Indians -- more than any other book I've read in recent memory. Especially a good read for these times, when so much revisionism is operating in the media. It was fascinating to read Lewis' matter-of-fact observations about the tribes he encountered on his route.
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Summary: Lewis and Clark, It's time someone got the story right!
Review: Almost all American school children are at one point or another presented with the story of Lewis and Clark and their epic trip across the West. This book finally gives us the true details of the journey. From the tedium of planning to Sacajawea's proper place in the expedition's success, Ambrose takes material culled from Lewis and Clark's journals and his own experience on the trail and crafts a fascinating story of these two men and their adventure across the wilderness. Even Lewis's deterioration and eventual suicide is dealt with clearly and with as much accuracy and compassion as history allows. A phenomenal undertaking and one that will be hard to improve upon.
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Summary: Ambrose Brings Two Icons to Life
Review: In an age of historical ignorance, a lot of people still know the names of Lewis and Clark. They even have a rough idea of what they did. But Lewis and Clark have, for most, long ago petrified into icons. Ambrose resurrects the real people behind the legend.The book is a biography of Meriwether Lewis. But, reflected in the light of Ambrose's examination, we also come to know William Clark as a real man. Of course, the book concentrates on their famous expedition, but it's over a hundred pages before that journey starts. Ambrose doesn't waste the space though. Not only does he show how Lewis' life prepared him for leading the Corps of Discovery, but we also get details of Lewis' friendship with Thomas Jefferson, Lewis' experiences in the Whiskey Rebellion and his training in scientific matters before leaving for the west. We also get a brief, but fascinating, section on how Thomas Jefferson's slaveholding was not only a moral failing, as he knew it was, but also not justifiable on an economic level since German farmers in Virginia had profitable farms with fewer acres and no slaves. Of course, the bulk of the book is taken up with Lewis and Clark's trip to the Pacific and back. And it's a gripping tale of survival, exploration, first European contact with some Indian tribes, and, briefly, of combat. Ambrose's style is emminently readable even if, as some have noted, he does repeat certain passages from time to time. His biggest contribution may be to emphasize Lewis' scientific contributions. Lewis faithfully gathered a great many samples of the plants and animals he found and made detailed descriptions in his journal. Those journals are at the heart of a mystery covered in this book. Lewis' raw notes are still extant and are extensive. But, for great chunks of time on his trip, he made no entries. Ambrose, following other scholars, offers an explanation for those gaps. Lewis' journals are also central to the mystery of his psychological dissolution. Though he made preparations to organize his notes and publish them in book form, he never completed the job though he had plenty of time. He came back a hero in 1806; he died from a gunshot wound in 1809. Ambrose blames early fame, alcoholism, and Lewis' tendancy towards depression. And he makes a convincing case, conspiracy theories notwithstanding, that it was suickide and not murder, a conclusion bolstered by Lewis' history and the opinion of his friends. The failure to publish his findings and pass his knowledge on to a wide audience hurt the historical reputation of the expedition. It was only in the 20th Century that Lewis and Clark became popular figures of American history. Ambrose's account will certainly keep Lewis and Clark from falling into obscurity again.
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Summary: Pretty Creepy
Review: This is a great story, especially if you've seen the Ken Burns documentary about Lewis and Clark and want more information. This is as good as Ambrose's other books, but this one is even creepier because Spanish people were trying to stop Lewis and Clark and there were Indians around and stuff. Pretty freaky. This was a very good book.
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Summary: Fantastic History!
Review: The previous review is right on the mark, so I won't rehash all of the points already made. This is the first Stephen Ambrose book I've read and it won't be the last. Of course, this book details the historic journey of Lewis and Clark. I found the text beautifully written and appreciated the great lengths the author went to in order to report the events of the expedition honestly and accurately. Ambrose does an amazing job of recognizing and answering questions that lay people might think of in contemplating what America was like in the 1800s. The extraordinary effort and planning required to make a journey into the unknown wilderness, across the continent is completely dissected and wonderfully revealed in this extremely readable book. Strangely, considering the subject matter, this book is truly rivetting and every page is filled with excitement! I found it hard to put down. I strongly recommend it to everyone and anyone!
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Summary: A wonderful, easy to read history
Review: Undaunted Courage is part biography, part travel journal and is an excellent example of the way history should be written. Chronicling the Lewis and Clark expedition, Ambrose takes us on the arduous trek up the Missouri, across the plains and over the Great Divide to the storm swept Oregon coast - and then back. The book is chronologically organized, giving the reader a sense of the grinding challenges Lewis and Clark faced, with abundant details giving the reader a sense of accompanying the explorers on their journey. The maps (and there are several) are also helpful in re-tracing their steps. But Ambrose goes beyond the journey itself, occasionally giving the reader a glimpse of the world that was to come to the Native Americans Lewis and Clark encountered - indeed, foreshadowing the volitile relationship that Native Americans would have with the US government for the next 200 years. He concludes the book with an epilogue of the participants of the expedition - some returned to the Rockies as mountain men (John Coulter, for example), others simply vanished from history. As the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition approaches, this is a must read book for ANYONE who wishes to have more than a passing familiarity with one of the seminal events in American history.
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Summary: Undaunted Courage
Review: Undaunted Courage is a great adventure novel involving Meriwether Lewis I totally reccommend this book.
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Summary: Undaunted Courage not required to enjoy this book...
Review: As an amateur student of Thomas Jefferson and his life, the tale of the Lewis and Clark Expedition has always intrigued me. I have not found a better telling of that story than Stephen Ambrose's book, Undaunted Courage. The book provides a vivid account of early America and insight into what Jefferson and others did and did not know about our country during that time. Anyone interested in Jefferson history should read this book. The story of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the men of The Expedition is a gripping tale told in vivid detail with a sense of adventure. I would love to have made the trip with them, although I would have probably died en route. These men were rugged frontiersmen and soldiers the likes of whom I have not met in modern day America. The following passage from the book shows how different an America Lewis and Clark lived in and how much effort Mr. Ambrose put into this work: "In addition, it seemed unlikely that one nation could govern an entire continent. The distances were just too great. A critical fact in the world of 1801 was that nothing moved faster than the speed of a horse. No human being, no manufactured item, no bushel of wheat, no side of beef (or any beef on the hoof, for that matter), no letter, no information, no idea, order, or instruction of any kind moved faster. Nothing ever had moved any faster, and, as far as Jefferson's contemporaries were able to tell, nothing ever would." We are fortunate that much of the Lewis and Clark field samples and journals survived and that Mr. Ambrose has taken such care in giving us this historically accurate account of The Expedition. Anyone who as seen the newly minted year 2000 golden dollar coins and been curious about the Indian maiden, Sacagawea, on the coin should read this book. Lewis and Clark very likely would have been killed during the trip without her help. This is a great book, read it.
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