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Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

Great read about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, essentially an updated biography of Meriwether Lewis with the major emphasis being the expedition. Great info on American life during the late 1700's and early 1800's...it's amazing what 200 years of technology has done for the American way of life.

The actual narrative immediately surrounding the expedition is fantastic. The modern American can hardly comprehend what Lewis and Clark accomplished. Technology has done so much to remove many of the slightest inconveniences and almost all of the serious ones as relating to health and physical discomfort. Those were some tough bastards. It was a grueling trip and they battled the terrain, the elements, starvation, and more. The Indians could have killed them all a bunch of times over, instead they saved them at various instances which is a miracle in itself especially given the circumstances; essentially claiming to every large group of Indians they came to that this was now American land, a white boy was now in charge of them, you will now need to answer to us and stop fighting with all the other tribes... essentially telling them that their way of life needed to be immediately and completely changed or they would all be rubbed out by white boys who would come from back east. It is likely most of this was lost in translation and for the most part not understood, or maybe it was so ridiculous that they assumed it was a lie. Luckily for them they only encountered the Blackfeet once, and it was a small group. That's a good story. The whole of the encounters with the grizzlies is some good reading as well.

This a good account of a great event in American history and there's some good hunting stories in there too;)

Read it about 12 years ago. Recommend it. I recall the mention of eating greasy beaver meat and how they loved it. As opposed to eating mostly lean game.

I don't recall the beaver review but I do remember that Lewis loved dog meat and Clark hated it.

I really enjoyed this book. The Lewis and Clark Expedition was a monumental accomplishment in American history and Stephen Ambrose did a masterful job of presenting the story.

It's a good read, slow but interesting. I don't remember my History teacher telling about the Indian squaws with VD or treating it with mercury haha. Overall they got extremely lucky to make it through that ordeal alive.

Good read, for me. But you gotta want to know about the Expedition to enjoy the book.

Some of the reading can be a bit tedious.




Travis

I read it awhile back. The work required to move around The Great Falls of the Missouri in Montana is mind-boggling.