I would love to report that I've sent 2016 out with a bang, but unfortunately, the last book on my list this year is one I couldn't quite finish. I've read just more than one-third and determined I've learned more than enough about Lewis and Clark. I will say this: Stephen Ambrose is nothing, if not thorough, (re)recording everything from the daily highs to the miles the expedition made on any given day. (I occasionally felt I was reliving an adolescent family vacation during which we drove no small part of the Lewis and Clark, but that is a story for another day.)
Also, Lewis and Clark make the pioneers look like they had it easy. I cannot help but be continually amazed at the litany of tasks an individual used to accomplish in a given day or week or month or year. Lewis was not yet in his third decade when Jefferson tasked him with opening the West; the fact that he saved a party from Indians when he was only 10 seems only natural.
Ambrose resolutely makes the case that the Lewis and Clark expedition was
possibly the most important undertaking in U.S. history, and certainly
that the repercussions and reverberations shaped the country into what
it is today. Undaunted Courage is well-researched and well-written. It is a good book. It is also a long book, written for an audience with a greater interest in the nitty-gritty of Lewis and Clark's days. If this is you, by all means, read it. If this doesn't describe you, I predict it would make for a long, hard slog. Which is perhaps appropriate, given the subject matter.
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