Great captivating book with accurate history. It should be required reading to become a citizen.....with a test.

Ambrose's writing is riveting, and his descriptions vivid and captivating. This book is hard to put down. I wish the maps were more detailed and in higher resolution, but that may be more a failure of Kindle than the book itself.

I had previously read and enjoyed Ambrose's "Band of Brothers", "D-Day" and "Citizens Soldiers", and I also have an interest in earlier American history, so I had to read "Undaunted Courage". I'm about half way through and am enjoying the book. Ambrose puts much emphasis Thomas Jefferson and his relationship with Lewis, so much so that Jefferson is almost as much of a character during the tale of the journey as the two Captains and the rest of the party. Ambrose is a more unabashed fan of Jefferson's than I am (I lean towards the John Adams side of that revolutionary split, while understanding the faults and flaws of both), but the TJ hosannas are muted enough not to be annoying. Ambrose was an effective popularizer of American history, and did a great service in bringing the past to life for readers who are not specialists or academics - despite the plagiarism scandals which rightly muddied his reputation among professional historians. And he was never the stylist that David McCullough is. (Though McCullough leans as far towards Adams as Ambrose did towards Jefferson.) But Ambrose writes clear prose, tells an interesting story and puts things in context - which puts him ahead of most popular historians and miles beyond most academics. (Who appear to regard the ability to write clear prose as some kind of personality disorder.)

On our vacation out west last month I saw a few historical markers for Lewis and Clark. I had to admit to myself that, though I knew their names and vaguely what they'd done, I was not aware of any of the details of their expedition. I either missed that day in American History or that knowledge has left my head to make room for song lyrics (which I assume take up most of my brain's hard drive space.). So I looked on Amazon and saw that Stephen E Ambrose had written a book about them and I recognized his name so I purchased it and have been reading it since the vacation. What an epic story of an incredible journey! I learned so much, starting with Lewis' first name, Meriwether, and the fact that it was Thomas Jefferson who not only completed the Louisiana Purchase but then commissioned the expedition, mainly in hopes of finding an all water route from the east coast to the west coast (spoiler alert: those damn Rocky Mountains get in the way.) One of the things that fascinated me was how bereft Jefferson (and everyone else back east) was about how the trek was going. In our day and age where you can video chat with someone halfway around the world in real time, it's impossible to imagine a day and age when it would take two years to learn whether Lewis and Clark and their small group made it safely to the Pacific Ocean or were slaughtered along the way. The book itself was rich with details, culled mainly from Lewis and Clark's individual journals which they kept dutifully during the entire expedition. But Ambrose doesn't shy away from editorializing either. He very openly discusses all the broken promises made to the Native American tribes the expedition encountered, as well as how growing up as slaveholders influenced Jefferson, Lewis and Clark in their thinking that certain races are superior to others. That is the true dilemma of this great nation, and one that cannot be ignored when discussing something as monumental as Lewis and Clark's expedition. Did the good outweigh the bad? If history, as they say, is the story of the winners, then the answer is Yes. Could we as a nation have prospered any other way? That, we'll never know. After the expedition was complete, there were still about 80 pages left in the book. I didn't see how there could be. Other than getting their journals published, what more was there to the Lewis and Clark story? Silly me. I had no idea about Meriwether Lewis' sad and tragic ending. It actually wept a little when I read it. I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves a good adventure story, especially if you're like me and you somehow missed out on all the details of this great expedition in school. It's a true American story of bravery and exploration. And next time I'm out west I'll be sure to pull over at one of those historical markers and appreciate it a lot more.

Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" is a great entry in the ranks of what you might call popular history...books with a serious purpose and covered in the right amount of depth to fully inform the reader, without the extensive detail that characterizes history written for historians. It focuses more on Captain Meriwether Lewis than on Captain William Clark, in fact it is as much a biography of Lewis as an account of the expedition, as the subtitle makes clear: "Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the opening of the American West." Not that Clark was a mere supporting character, far from it, but Lewis bore the greater responsibility of planning the journey and reporting directly to Jefferson and Congress on their progress and results. He also received greater reward afterward, including appointment as Governor of the territory of Louisiana in 1807 - which had tragic consequences, which I will leave to the reader to discover. After a 100-page section outlining Lewis's early life and career, the historical background, and his and Jefferson's ambitious planning of the project, Undaunted Courage follows the Lewis and Clark expedition from its beginnings in the Pittsburgh area to its successful goal of reaching the Pacific coast, and then back again. It seems there is a huge body of historical literature covering the expedition in great detail, so Ambrose's purpose was to distill it to a volume more readable to the average person. You can learn the technical and human challenges that Lewis and Clark, and their Corps of Discovery, had to overcome, at every juncture on the journey. You will learn how the Corps varied in number depending on its needs, with several men included only so far as the trip to the mouth of the Missouri, where the "core Corps" followed the main path to the West, which of course was the main objective of their mission. There was much more interaction with the various Indian tribes than I expected, including their long winter with the large Mandan tribe in 1804-1805, where they roamed far and wide, studied their cultures, partied with the Indians (and slept with their wives), and prepared for the long push up the western stretch of the River and to cross the Rocky mountains. A few impressions from this book: - I was struck by the different experiences Lewis and Clark had with the Indian tribes they encountered. The Mandans of North Dakota, who shared their quarters with the Corps, were very friendly and did not bargain too hard with the White men for supplies and horses. So too the Nez Perce were extremely generous, and worried about the Corps' fate when they attempted to cross the Bitter Root mountains in early Spring before the snow melted, in June 1806. But the Teton Sioux and the Blackfeet tribes, both very warlike and feared by other Indians, caused terrible trouble, and Lewis's small, separated party finally had a small battle with Blackfoot horse-thieves in Montana in July 1807, before escaping on canoes down the Missouri River. This just scratches the surface of the Corps' Indian experience, and you should know Lewis wrote lengthy notes about the ethnology of all the tribes he met. - While the Corps did not lose any men to violence, they lost only one man to illness. Sergeant William Floyd died of appendicitis early in the journey, and was buried on a hill overlooking the Missouri. The men were often sick, and all of them, especially Lewis who nearly died in late 1806, suffered from dysentery from poor diets - often subsisting entirely on plant roots. It is a tribute to both Lewis and Clark's medical skills they kept the men healthy enough to continue, after necessary rest and recovery. In fact, the two leaders' determination and toughness were an absolute inspiration to all their men. - Their lowest point was the winter spent in the small fort they built near the Oregon coast. It was named Fort Clatsop, for the nearby tribe. They had enough to eat but the weather was consistently wet, cold and windy. There was very little recreation, and the Clatsops, while friendly enough, tried to take advantage of the white men's hospitality. - Lewis and Clark discovered "immence" herds of buffalo that covered the plains for miles. (Their spelling was atrocious, but so was most peoples spelling back then - they were still very articulate and wrote extensive notes on the Indians, geography, and flora and wildlife they encountered.) The bison were so tame the men often walked right through the herds. Which is remarkable, since the Indians, thanks to horses and a few guns they had, hunted the buffalo very heavily, showing the white men some of their techniques. The Corps also hunted elk, beaver, and antelope, when they could get close enough. They ate huge amounts of meat so they could keep going, often 6 pounds a day per man. - Almost no American anticipated the heights or distances in crossing the Rocky Mountains. Captain Lewis was in awe on first seeing them, and discouraged at the prospect of crossing them, which they had to do with snowy trails in many stretches. It is more testimony to Lewis and Clark's leadership that they survived the crossing, both ways. - Lewis and Clark were not only tough military leaders, they were astute judges of how far to push their luck. Still, the book assesses a few of their weaknesses, such as failing to take full advantage of the linguistic skills of Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman (married to a French trader) who joined the expedition soon after St. Louis. - Finally, while there was very little violence during the journey, all the men showed the necessary courage and toughness it required. They stood down potentially hostile Indians, they negotiated in good faith with all they tribes they traded with (with one exception which I will leave you to read about), and did their utmost best to represent friendly and honest ambassadors from the US government, which of course had just purchased most of the land they traveled from the French. Lewis and Clark's expedition was executed about as flawlessly as President Jefferson could have ever hoped. It is a bright and shining example of American greatness early in our history. Ambrose has essentially done the heavy lifting for us readers, telling an amazing story gathered from 200 years of notes and other histories. without sacrificing anything important. As such, "Undaunted Courage" is a tremendous achievement, and a book anyone with more than a passing interest in US history should read.