Beyond the Stony Mountains: Nature in the American West from Lewis and Clark to Today

Rating:
Summary: Natural History Exploration of Lewis and Clark Expedition
Review: Dr. Dan Botkin has delivered an important and timely contribution to the voluminous literature associated with the on-going commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.

"Beyond the Stony Mountains," provides a synthetic and desperately needed overview of the Lewis and Clark expedition vis a vis the geography of the trail environments. While many of the titles associated with the Corps of Discovery provide detailed assessments of particular aspects, Botkin's most recent contribution provides an ecological historical perspective of the landscape dynamics associated with two hundred years of change. This change, documented in well-researched analysis spanning over ten years of work, highlights the interconnected cultural and ecological factors associated with landscape change. Moving beyond typical social, economic, and political history of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Botkin pinpoints key examples of the historical geography and provides insights unique to the ecological mind.

Moreover, Botkin's analysis proves a key assertion provided by Dr. Gary Moulton, Editor, "the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition." Despite copious examinations of the data and information contained in the Journals, it is possible to extract additional, meaningful analysis from the pages of the text. This analysis is, of course, dependent on the perspective of the investigator and the particular critical lense through which the Journals are examined. In Botkin's case, we have a holistic, naturalist's approach that defines the heuristic methodology. Again, such an analytical approach presents a substantial contribution to the literature and serves as a point of convergence for many researchers looking to document scientifically specific aspects of landscape dynamics through the story that is the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Botkin's contribution provides a wealth of new information, geographical theses for discussion, and a modern foundation for the continued examination of the significance of change along the Lewis and Clark trail. Provided that change is one of the few constants we can assign to the legacy of the Corps of Discovery, it is important that we dig deeply with Dr. Botkin, beneath the surface, and examine the geographical lessons contained in the Journals. It is only through a scientific assessment of where we have been that we have some sense of where we are and, most importantly, where we are going collectively as nation living in the shadow of the Stony Mountains.

Congratulations to Dr. Botkin for this worthwhile contribution.

Rating:
Summary: Poor editing or ???
Review: Factual errors in history or natural history can often be ignored as typographical, as in 'Wagons West' by Frank McLynn where he refers to the West coast tribe near which Lewis and Clark over-wintered in 1805-06 as the 'catslops' (yes, sic, cat slop, why not just call them cat-sick, funnier).

Worse is John Keegan in 'Fields of Battle' having Thomas Jefferson visiting Bent's Fort in 1833. Hope I'm that active at 90 years old, not to mention dead.

But in a book by an ecologist published by Oxford Press and selling at $38.00 retail, I kind of expect better than to find on page 4 a satellite photo of the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri the caption of which, in no uncertain terms, describes the Missouri and the Illinois merging before meeting the Mississippi, both to the East of the Mississippi.