Review by Choice Review
Lavender's narrative of the greatest exploratory achievement in US history supercedes John Bakeless's Lewis & Clark, Partners in Discovery (1947). It is the best treatment of the human, quotidian aspects of the expedition. Bernard DeVoto's The Course of Empire (1952) brought out the geopolitical aspects, John Logan Allen's Passage Through the Garden (1974) viewed the voyage as a geographical feat and modifier of geographic ideas. Other works, such as Paul R. Cutright's Lewis and Clark, Pioneering Naturalists (CH, Oct '69), or E.G. Chuinard's Only One Man Died: The Medical Aspects of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1979), treat particular aspects of the expedition intensively. Donald Dean Jackson's Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1962) and Paul R. Cutright's A History of the Lewis and Clark Journals (1975) provide context and reviews of the available sources. Lavender has drawn on them all as well as on the manuscript and printed primary sources to present a balanced, learned, and lively history of an epochal human exploit. Public and academic libraries, community college level up. -R. W. McCluggage, Loyola University of Chicago
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Lavender relives the tension and exhilaration wrought by the western explorations of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark under the orders of President Jefferson. Explaining the politics of the expedition as well as its logistics, Lavender portrays the cast of characters with thoughtful detail and elucidates the explorers' findings about Indian cultures. The excitement and wonder of Lewis and Clark's remarkable adventure is vividly captured in this readable account. Detailed appendixes, notes, and bibliography also make the book useful for research. To be indexed. DPD.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
``The spellbinding narrative captures the mingled awe, courage, fear and curiosity of two stumblers into the heart of darkness,'' observed PW. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The story of the Lewis and Clark expedition is well known, but it has been 30 years since the last general secondary account appeared. Using the skills of a master storyteller, Lavender has provided a reliable record of that epic journey, reassessing the evidence in the light of recent research and relating even the smallest details of the expedition. This reviewer's only regret is that Lavender could not wait for publication of the monumental edition of the expedition's journals by the University of Nebraska Press ( The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, LJ 3/1/87) to be completed. Suitable even for young adults, this work replaces older secondary accounts. Essential.Stephen H. Peters, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Lavender, a prolific chronicler of Western exploration (Bent's Fort, Land of the Giants, Westward Vision, The Great West, etc.) here turns his attention to the quest of Lewis and Clark. The Lewis and Clark expedition was the first sponsored by the US government of the country's vast northwestern wilderness, and spanned from 1804 (just after the Louisiana Purchase) to 1806, when the explorers, having been given up for lost, reappeared in St. Louis, their original starting point. Lavender brings the details of the expedition to light, letting us in on some of the little side stories that often get lost in the patriotic glow. Thus, we learn that Lewis and Clark refused Sioux offers of their females as nightly bedmates--a perfectly normal expression of the Indians' lenient views of sexual diversions, but a breach of the captains' high moral stance. And we are treated to a colorful depiction of a ceremonial fire, where the Indians serve up roasted dog and cakes of pemmican (""the latter compounded of pulverized dried meat mixed with congealed buffalo fat and pounded choke-cherries""). There are high moments (Clark's great rapport with Indians, for instance, as he ""healed"" them with salves made of lard and pitch, or pine resin, bear oil, and beeswax), and low ones (e.g., Lewis' paternalistic addressing of Indians as ""children""). Meanwhile, Lavender takes his stand squarely with those historians who believe that Lewis' chronic melancholia led him to suicide in 1809 (like the fiction of Salieri poisoning Mozart, some insist that Lewis was actually murdered). A useful, vivid work that can stand beside David Freeman Hawke's Those Tremendous Mountains (1980) and Ingvard Eide's American Odyssey: The Journal of Lewis and Clark (1969). Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
