Anyone else read this Stephen Ambrose book about the Lewis and Clark expedition? The detail in this book is outstanding, and really helps one to understand what a monumental undertaking that journey was...all the time faced with the unknown around every bend or turn. The sheer toughness of those people is hard to imagine...guess they would all be Navy SEAL material in this day and age! Highly recommended.

__________________
Do or do not. There is no try.

Anyone else read this Stephen Ambrose book about the Lewis and Clark expedition? The detail in this book is outstanding, and really helps one to understand what a monumental undertaking that journey was...all the time faced with the unknown around every bend or turn. The sheer toughness of those people is hard to imagine...guess they would all be Navy SEAL material in this day and age! Highly recommended.

__________________
Do or do not. There is no try.

Yea I read that a few years ago. I'm a Stephen Ambrose fan, I have read much of what he has written.
Stonecove

Yes!

Fantastic book. I read it many years ago and again in the spring of 2006 2 months after I had a hip replaced. I read it slowly along with a book titled, "Along The Trail With Lewis and Clark" while taking 6 weeks to drive their trip from St. Louis to Oregon and back. Took my "85 Ford 250 diesel, 4-speed carrying my '73 Ford American Road 11' pickup camper. Staying on back raods (no superslabs) and keeping it at 55 mph I got 19.5 mpg. Great trip! One of the outstanding stops was in Kansas City to see The Steamboat Arabia Museum.

I read the Journals.

One thing that struck me was Lewis (I think) saying many times, "I resolved to sell my life dearly."

He was mostly referring to tense situations with Indian tribes, but it might also have said it about scraps involving grizzly bears.

Sounds like a good thing to keep in mind in some situations possible today, no?

Yes, I read it a while back. It was as daring an expedition as one to the moon.

I just finished a couple months ago. A great adventure book and history lesson.

Besides the insight into Lewis, I found the involvement of Thomas Jefferson and the politics of the time very interesting.

I read it last May while on an Alaskan cruise. My wife fussed at me because I couldn't hardly put the book down. Ambrose did a good job with that one.

__________________
- Change it back -

Read it a few years ago. The study he went through before the trip surprised me. There was more botany involved than I realized.

Yup, I've read it, keep it on my bookshelf, and go back and selectively re-read sections from time to time. It is substantially better than David Lavender's "The Way to the Western Sea," which also is an account of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.

For history buffs, may I also recommend "Son of the Morning Star", by Evan Connell it is incredibly well-researched and written, and is the best account of Custer and the Little Bighorn that I have ever read.

Bill

I have a problem with Ambrose because of his plagiarism with so many of "his" works.

Regarding the the expedition, "The Journals of Lewis and Clark" is still in print. It is a great read. Greater to in that it is the first hand account; however, Ambrose did write the forward in the current printing.

__________________
The earth laughs in flowers

I have been a student of Lewis & Clark and the Corps of Discovery since I was a kid growing up in St. Louis.

I'll list several other books on the expedition.

Bernard Devoto, "The Journals of Lewis and Clark."

Landon Y. Jones, "William Clark and the Shaping of the West"
Also by Jones " The Essential Lewis and Clark.

Larry E. Morris, "The Fate of the Corps." What became of the Lewis and Clark Explorers after the Expedition.

Carol Lynn MacGregor, "The Journals of Patrick Gass" Member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Willard Sterne Randall, "Thomas Jefferson A Life" (I'm still trying my best to finish this.)

Also another great easy read by Stephen E. Ambrose is "Nothing like it in the world" The men who built the transcontinental railroad 1863-1869.
Anyone who lives in California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming or Nebraska and can travel along this route and you can in most places by following I-80, should feel the history of westward expansion. It's just remarkable what they did with pick, shovel, rod and chain.

Bob

__________________
Bob
KDØQCE

Me too. [I also have an issue with his 101st history. There are better historians out there. I suppose he is deserved of being credited with shinning the spotlight on WWII airborne troops, although now the general public thinks E company won the entire European theater.]
I am reading their journals with his (Amborse) forward right now. It's a slow read for me; one-because I'm trying to absorb all the info and figure out the "wheres" and "whens" and two; all the misspellings and the way they wrote is slowing me down.

I like Ambrose's writing, and I think his first-person interviews (not with Lewis and Clark) are one reason for his popularity with the general public. I've spotted some technical errors in his writings, but they are overcome by the readability and overall accuracy of his works. Unfortunately he is dead and not able to defend his writings against charges of plagiarism.

He did a Marvelous Job of getting the WWII Museum in New Orleans started. Unfortunately Katrina and the damn looters ruined it.

I ordered a copy of Undaunted Courage from Amazon over the weekend. I'll have it by next week. I'm looking forward to reading this book.

__________________
195th Session FBINA

I'm about 100 pages into it now. I'm enjoying his writing very much, I was surprised.


Cat

__________________
Think for yourself.

I read "Undaunted Courage" when it was first released.
Living in Lewiston,Idaho across the river from Clarkston, Washington, the Corps of Discovery has special meaning to us.
Having fished "Colt Kilt Creek" and the Lochsa and camped and elk hunbted at Portable Soup Camp is special.
If you every get out this way, travel the Lolo Motorway which follows a good bit of their Idaho route.
I'm still amazed at how they could traverse this still difficult terrain.

I read, I think, Devoto's "Journals..." at my late father's commendation, looking particularly for his comment that they fancied the flesh of mountain lions as table fare. I don't recall any mention of this in Devoto's book. For those of you who've read other accounts, any mention of this preference?

They passed right by my property.

I wish someone would do a movie or mini series on the expedition.

"For history buffs, may I also recommend "Son of the Morning Star", by Evan Connell it is incredibly well-researched and written, and is the best account of Custer and the Little Bighorn that I have ever read."

Reread it this summer, still my favorite Custer book. Undaunted Courage is also a great read, my only complaint is how many dogs they ate, :-). We have the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center here in Great Falls, worth a stop if you're in the neighborhood.

I read Undaunted Courage when it was published, and consider it one of the best accounts of the expedition. His WWII books are where he ran into some problems, and it may be that he relied too much on grad students to assemble some chapters and didn't proof read them sufficiently prior to publication.

I enjoyed the book. If you read the forward, he says he made the decision to write the book at an aunt's house in Normal, IL. That is where I have lived for the past 55 years, so I found that an extra treat.

I am a huge fan of the Corps of Discovery and have been to the Sgt Floyd Memorial and another of their camps along the Missouri in South Dakota. I have followed Missouri by car North of Omaha also.

I found it very intriguing that they could build such powerful large caliber air guns that long ago. Brilliant engineering and craftsmanship!

__________________
protocalldesign.com

I read it a few years ago. I have decided that anything written by Ambrose is a great read.

__________________
Infected by Smith&Wesson

Frank— Lewis and Clark | A film by Ken Burn | PBS America - YouTube.

Lewis & Clark - Ken Burns

Many say it’s his best documentary.

__________________
No school like the old school.