Rating: 
Summary: Deep / Insightful
Review: Ambrose wrote a very complete book here. Obviously extensive, well researched, and with a good flow - this book is worth reading. My pick with this book would be it moves along a little on the slow side, but so did Lewis & Clark on this voyage. High Points: Descriptions & Interpretations from the original journals - superb. Multiple points of view, Lewis, Clark, the members of the corps of discovery, native americans, etc. Ambrose brings these to life. Intricate step by step accounts of the trip. Improvement Points: At times it just moves along too slowly - Ambrose could have made it a bit more concise. Confusing ending, did Lewis commit suicide? Was he muredered, Ambroses' guesses leave something to be desired. All in all this is a good book which should be read by any aspiring student of history. Joseph Dworak
Rating: 
Summary: A Fascinating, Very Readable History
Review: Anyone who wishes to read a comprehensive, yet entertaining account of the Lewis and Clark Expedition owes it to themselves to read Undaunted Courage. Starting with the historical background, and early life of M. Lewis, the story of the expedition's journey across a continent is told in such a readable style that one is almost sorry when it's over, and they've returned to St. Louis. Ambrose makes extensive use of their journals, and adds his own views on why certain decisions were made, both wisely and not, over others. While pointing to the obviously gifted leadership of "the captains", he is not oblivious to their faults. Likewise in his descriptions of the various Indian tribes: both noble and unadmirable practices are related. The overall result of the author's approach is to tell a tale of courage and discovery, without any undo sentamentalism. There are, to be sure, many moving descriptions of events, e.g., the suicide of Lewis, who probable suffered from bi-polar (manic-depressive) illness, years after the expedition itself. And his descriptions of the various settings, with which he is eminently familiar, make it easy to understand why buffs today retrace long segments of the Corps of Discovery's routes. All in all, a great work of history. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Quite a Feat!
Review: This book is an amazing accomplishment. Stephen Ambrose has given us an amazing work with "Undaunted Courage". We learn the background of Merriwether Lewis, his close relationship with Thomas Jefferson and of course the trek across the country. Ambrose gives us a strong narrative, sprinkled with excerpts of Lewis and Clark's journal, interjecting his unique take on the situations. Stephen Ambrose is unparalleled when it comes to historical writing.
Rating:
Summary: A Courageous Undertaking - Undaunted Courage
Review: This detailed book is a long read, but worth it. Ambrose takes you into the early life of Lewis from 1774 through the expedition and his encounters with the Corp of Discover. Throughout the journal, the realization is that he says almost nothing about the other expedition members, Sacajawea or Clark in detail. The infant son of Sacajea and Charbonneau, Jean Baptiste "Pomp", gets little if no mention, nor the difficulties of a native american teenage woman on this amazing journey. This book is about Lewis. Although some of the journal is missing, other writers have speculated based on facts of the lives of the Corp of Discovery members. Ambrose seems bent on characterizing Merriweather Lewis in a certain light, one with perhaps some hereditary mental disorder; taking his own life in the end after the journey. However, the facts that he did present were interesting, although I would have preferred to know more details about the Native American tribes they encountered.
Rating:
Summary: Great history - greater detail.
Review: Undaunted Courage is just a great piece of American history by one of the great modern American historians. Typical of Ambrose, this story has more detail than you want at some times (do we need to know how many pencils were carried on the raft?) but it really does give you a window into a whole different time and place.
I learned so much about the journey, the opening of the West, and the post-journey lives of these adventurors that I'd never even considered.
Great book for fans of American history, the American West, and Ambrose.
Rating: 
Summary: Well written--but by whom?!?
Review: This work is said to be plagarism--see Scandals and Scoundrels: Seven Cases That Shook the Academy
by Ron Robin
Rating:
Summary: Abridged Audio Victim
Review: This book is unfortunately hacked to pieces in the abridged audio CD. 20 hours are cut down to 4. Lewis and Clark race across the country in a few hours, then Ambrose summarises the ending. The stories of exploration are fascinating, but I spent too much effort trying to fill in the missing pieces. The unabridged version is probably much better.
Rating:
Summary: Could have been another Darwin
Review: Ambrose actually followed the trail of Lewis and Clark in doing the research for this book. Even today, with 4 wheel drive vehicles, parts of the trail cannot be traversed, other than the way Lewis and Clark did it. Even today, it is still and epic journey. Much of the trail is still wilderness.
The book describes Lewis from his childhood to his death by suicide. Jefferson was a neighbor. They became close friends when Jefferson hired him as his Secretary when he was President, and both lived in the White House together.
Jefferson had tried to get a cross country exploration going in 1792, when he was Sec of State, and Lewis had volunteered then.
Ambrose goes into much detail in the organization of the expedition. Lewis and Clark had known each other years before in the military, and were fast friends then.
The trip had been organized prior to the Louisiana purchase, and with the purchase of Louisiana, (Jefferson had wanted to purchase New Orleans, instead got half a continent), the need for knowing what was out there was more critical.
Many misconceptions abounded. Jefferson and others thought that prehistoric animals lived there, that there was a water route to the Pacific Ocean, that much of what is now Canada was part ot what we bought. They did not know how large the country was, expecting to complete the trip in a few months. It took over 2 years.
Lewis's schedule was held up by a drunk boatbuilder.
Only one man died during the entire trip. They had many troubles with Indians. Grizzly bears were a real problem.
Sacagawea was critical to their success. She was a 15 year old wife of a Frenchman they hired. She had a child during the trip, and her life was saved by "Dr. Lewis" when she was sick. Turns out she was the brother of the Shoshone chief from whom they got their horses, vital to completion of the trip.
Ambrose is critical of the splitting of the party on the return trip.
John Colter, one of the men, left the party on the way back, and joined another party going upstream, and became the first mountain man. He is famous for discovering what is now Yellowstone National Park.
Lewis became Governor of the Louisiana Territory when he got back. Clark became Sec of Indian affairs of the Lousisana Territory and was a general.
Lewis never did publish his journals or all his documentation of the plants and animals he discovered and documented.
Instead, others got the credit when they found and documented them. Lewis would have been on a level with Darwin, had he not committed suicide.
Ambrose weaves a story that one does not want to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Notes from the Age of Greatness
Review: What an outstanding work and what a pity that so few will become acquainted with it! Ambrose has knocked another one out of the park with the story of the famous Lewis & Clarke Expedition that opened the American West to the new country.
How many times have we heard that "all they did was walk a long way" or "they did nothing that native Americans had not done before" or (worse of all) "they didn't accomplish anything." This is the story not only of just explorers but of Presidents and nations. Their trip was no Sunday stroll through the woods. It was preceded by lifetimes of experience, years of preparation, organization and planning on a scale rarely seen before or since and once underway, withstood the hardships of the open country, unfriendly natives and unfamiliar wildlife.
We live in an age in which heroes are castigated and belittled for the mere fact of being heroic. I admire not only the physical courage necessary but the intellectual underpinnings of the trip. The results were astounding and changed - perhaps as much as any one event - the way we viewed both our nation and our mission. The story was told chronologically with great detail. Their trusty translator, the Indian girl, her husband, the soldiers, the Indian chiefs - all became real in this book. The maps were superb and the individual vigenettes (losing supplies, men lost, arguments, snake bites, etc) gave the story a reality that mere recitation of facts cannot provide.
The research required for such a book is astounding (note the incredible bibliography). And Ambrose has a way of bringing to life dry, historical figures...they become more than characters in a book. He superbly blends culture, history, politics and science into a seamless whole - a task worthy of five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Among the best of Ambrose's work
Review: Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" tells the tale of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803-1806. The journey, made when America's image was still being created, showed early 19th-century America at its best -- deploying the scientific legacy of Enlightenment and the potential for a respectful exploration of the lands and peoples of the American interior.
Stephen Ambrose restrains his sometimes-annoying habit of celebrating every American exploit and trains his sights on an event that captures the imagination of Americans and others fully two centuries later. As with other epic journeys in real life, the Lewis and Clark expedition was a team effort requiring the talents of many. From the inspiration granted by President Jefferson, to the organizational and scientific skills of Lewis and Clark, to the language and negotiation skills of Sacagawea, to the efforts, strength and resilience of the 40-some-odd others in the "Corps of Discovery," the expedition relied on the bravery, endurance and intellect of all.
The modern idea of "roughing it" involves driving an RV over an interstate highway into a pre-constructed campsite with electricity, running water and waste services. The Corps of Discovery schlepped a 55-foot boat and tons of supplies by hand up uncharted rivers, across plains cloudy with misery-inducing mosquitoes and among possibly-hostile natives. Losing only a single man, Lewis and Clark managed to reach the Pacific, map the interior of the continent and return with a wealth of information about the inhabitants of the land -- human, floral and faunal. Ambrose's description of the supplies that L&C took along (including plenty of poisonous mercury pills to combat the team's anticipated venereal excesses) were hilariously instructive. What would *you* bring on a 3-year voyage to chart an unknown and probably dangerous land?
Ambrose is at his best in this book, describing the courage and adaptability of Lewis and Clark without shying away from the trip's disappointments. From the point of view of the participants, the trip was somewhat of a bust -- no easy passage to the Pacific, and a loss of some samples and notebooks. The sad fate of some of the trek's participants underlines the reality that heroism is less seen in constant nobility and perfection than in facing the rugged, unknowable slog that requires simple endurance and the will to soldier on.
What an inspiring book!
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