The author has done a huge amount of research ... Each chapter unfolds from the viewpoint of a different individual and the result is a richly woven tapestry of voices ... Fehrman reframes this well-known story, revealing it as more complex, and profoundly human ... A page-turner and a fantastic achievement.
Lewis and Clark had a lot of help, as Craig Fehrman argues persuasively and poetically ... This character-based approach pays enormous dividends, as Fehrman weaves a tale that uses human stories to go beyond hard facts and calcified myths ... Fehrman’s approach to this well-trodden historical chapter is fresh and inclusive. It also makes for a ripping good read.
Immensely engaging ... Fehrman strives to capture the motivations, values and ideas of the individuals who contributed to this multifaceted historical event.
An innovative new history ... The book adopts the perspectives not only of Lewis and of Clark but also of other members of the expedition ... Focusses on what each individual experienced and knew ... With subjects who haven’t left journals or letters, Fehrman guesses their state of mind by making inferences—some credible, others less so ... Fehrman’s willingness to make inferences clarifies some aspects of Lewis and Clark’s interactions with Native Americans.
Whenever my wife mentions that she is nervous about forgetting to pack something before a trip in the U.S., I tell her, 'This is America. We can buy anything we need when we get there.' This may be true in the 21st century. In his stirring new book, This Vast Enterprise, historian Craig Fehrman explains just how untrue this was for Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1803 ... In addition to giving us more detail about Sacajawea, Fehrman examines the personalities of many of the Americans on the expedition and of the Natives they encountered ... Fehrman dives deeply into the oral histories of the Native Americans to reveal their perspectives on the explorers.
What in less skillful hands might have been a mere travelogue becomes a cross-cultural, stunningly rendered rethink of Discoverers and Discovered ... A born storyteller, Fehrman conveys the Edenic majesty of white sandstone cliffs and treeless prairies, but he is just as adept at re-creating sleepless nights caused by numberless beavers slapping their tails against the water. Most of all, Fehrman wants us to appreciate the rugged individualists engaged in collective heroism ... Fehrman has written a rousing adventure tale that may also qualify as the most lyrical of survival guides.
Riveting and revitalized ... Grounded in outstanding scholarship documented in significant bibliographic essays on his sourcing and two outstanding appendices in which he discusses how specific research was conducted, Fehrman provides a model for revisiting long-studied aspects of our nation’s past.
The book’s wide-angle perspective is appropriate, since Lewis and Clark favored a more democratic decision-making style than was usual on a military expedition, and the inclusion of multiple Native points of view makes it clear how complex and fraught the team’s mission was. Fehrman’s approach gives added depth to his chronicle of the breathtaking natural wonders encountered and extraordinary hardships overcome on the Corps’ transcontinental trek. A valuable fresh look at a storied moment in American history.
A piercing revisionist account of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s 1804 expedition ... Readers will learn much from this revelatory unveiling of the raw humanity behind the hagiography.
