Lions of the West: Heroes and Villains of the Westward Expansion

I learned about Lions of the West: Heroes and Villains of the Westward Expansion, by Robert Morgan, on a fellow blogger's site and thought it sounded perfect.  I am a westerner and love learning about the role the West played in the development of the U.S.  The structure of the book really worked for me--each section is on a different individual who helped shaped the West in one way or another.  Many of their stories and histories overlap, but I liked being able to focus on a single individual and learn about his story and role one at a time.

The book covered Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, John “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman, David Crockett, Sam Houston, James K. Polk, Winfield Scott, Kit Carson, Nicholas Trist, and John Quincy Adams.  While the subtitle promises to feature villains as well as heroes, I think this is overstated.  In a way, I didn't see anyone as really a hero or a villain.  They all were admirable to a degree--some more than others--and they all took part in activities that could be seen as questionable, and many did things that were downright dishonorable and reprehensible.  For the most part, all were well-intentioned and patriotic and loyal to their cause, but oh, so human!  They engaged in petty squabbling, they turned away from what they knew was right (e.g., abolishing slavery, acknowledging the rights of Native Americans, stealing land from Mexico and Britain and France), but they had a vision and acted to make that vision a reality.

The only one I didn't really know about before reading the book was Nicholas Trist, and I found his story to be among the most interesting.  Gifted with incredible talents and skills as diplomat and administrator, he was also hampered by incredible shortcomings--an inability to speak in public and a knee-jerk defensive reaction to any type of criticism that resulted in him writing long (>160 pages) letters of rebuttal (makes Mr. Darcy's letter to Elizabeth Bennet seem like child's play).  He married Thomas Jefferson's granddaughter, and was an executor of his will, as well as one of his proteges.  

I also didn't know much about Sam Houston, so I really enjoyed learning about this dynamic, gregarious man, and now want to read a full biography of him.  Everything I knew about Polk I had learned from the Jackson bio I read last year, but Morgan didn't paint a glowing picture of this Machiavellian president.  I absolutely fell in love with General Winfield Scott, "Old Fuss and Feathers," and would love to read more about him as well.  And then, I've always had a soft spot for John Quincy Adams since I watched the John Adams mini-series--my goodness, a diplomat to Russia at age 14, and he swallowed his pride and served as a congressman for years after he lost the presidency!  And, I daresay, he was the "noblest Roman of them all" but letting his 1928 campaign supporters smear Rachel Donelson Robbiard Jackson, Andrew Jackson's wife, was shameful.

I did like the way the author drew on and quoted from a host of historians, many whose names I recognized but whose works I never read.  I tend to read more recent historians, but that doesn't make the research, opinions, and scholarly work of their predecessors less valid.

Incredibly, this book was not part of any of the various reading challenges I have signed up for this year.  I read it just because and is one of the reasons I am behind schedule on those same challenges!

William Ranney, Daniel Boone's First View of Kentucky, 1849

Undaunted Courage

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose was everything I had hoped it would be. Inspiring, enthralling, and enriching, I absolutely loved reading about the trip to the Pacific and back that Lewis and Clark made just over 200 years ago.

I only had two issues with the book. First, I felt a bit let down that every aspect of Meriwether Lewis's life was explored in detail, but scarcely any of William Clark's was. To be fair, the title does say that the book is about Lewis, Jefferson, and the West, but since I always think of Lewis & Clark as a duo, I assumed that they would be treated equally.

Second, I used to be an ardent Jeffersonian, but then I started reading bios of Hamilton, Washington, and Adams, and I felt that Ambrose was somewhat unscholarly in his obvious adoration of Jefferson and the corollary slighting of John Adams, my new favorite forefather. We all have our biases, but Ambrose's irked me somewhat.

Once I got over these two slight hurdles, I fell in love with the book, and had to get a copy of the coffee table companion book Lewis & Clark: Voyage of Discovery so I could study the maps and gaze at the photos of landmarks along the journey that still exist today, some even in much the same condition as when L&C first encountered them.

There is no doubt that Lewis's story is a fascinating one and ultimately tragic. Despite his manifold talents and skills as well as the personality that enabled him to lead an expedition safely across an unchartered continent, his personal demons of depression, alcoholism, and self-doubt and self-indulgence drove him to destroy himself and, for a long time, his reputation.

With Lewis, it's difficult not to be overwhelmed by his early and tragic suicide and so overlook the years he spent as Jefferson's companion, secretary, and protege as he prepared for the voyage of discovery that Jefferson shaped with only him in mind. Next to the expedition itself, I found it fascinating to read about how Lewis planned the journey--how he decided what to take, who to take, and when and where to embark. He read extensively in a number of different scientific fields so that he could knowledgeably report on what he and Clark discovered, and Jefferson arranged for him to be tutored by leading experts in many of the fields.

This was truly a wonderful book that gave me a better understanding into the politics and geographic realities and dreams of America shortly after its founding, and it provided a fascinating portrait of a great and tragic American whose influence has been unacknowledged until fairly recently.

Here's a lovely image of Lewis with his dog, Seaman, who made the journey with the Corps of Discovery.

Now, I want to read a bio of William Clark as well as watch the Ken Burns film on Lewis & Clark.