Fremont: Explorer for a Restless Nation - Hardcover

Egan, Ferol

4.45

20 ratings by Goodreads

9780385017756: Fremont: Explorer for a Restless Nation

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385017758 ISBN 13: 9780385017756

Publisher: Doubleday & Company, 1977

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John Charles Fr�mont (1813 - 1890) was an American military officer, explorer, and politician who became the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, when he led four expeditions into the American West, that era's penny press and admiring historians accorded Fr�mont the sobriquet The Pathfinder. The ultimate curse of being a national hero is that once the fires of acclaim go out, only the ashes of criticism remain. This was the fate of John Charles Fr�mont, for he climbed the peaks of glory to endure the deserts of despair. How this extraordinary man, illegitimate son of a French exile and a Virginia aristocrat, found his way from the obscurity of genteel poverty to the dizzying heights of national acclaim is one of the great stories in American history. Drawing on much previously unavailable material, Ferol Egan tells that remarkable story in the first full-scale biography of the great explorer. The result is a detailed picture of a unique man in a unique time and place, whose rise to power and fame shows the young United States in its brightest and most revealing aspects. But the story of Fr�mont's fall from glory reveals the darker side of a nation whose restless spirit spawned imperialist dreams - despite murderous internal strife - that seemed to encompass not only the new western boundaries, but the setting sun itself. Explorer, scientist, military governor of California, U.S. senator, first Republican candidate for President, spearhead for the doctrine of Manifest Destiny - Fr�mont knew the taste of almost every gift the hand of Success could bestow, including physical beauty and the love of one of the most desirable women of the time. In these pages, we see him as he moved through the scenes that were to shape - and ultimately destroy - his career. The back of the book includes extensive Notes to Pages, a bibliographic essay, and an extensive index.

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About the Author:

As a native Californian from Gold Rush country, Ferol Egan developed a love for the American West at an early age. A writer, retired teacher, and historian, Egan is the author of six books including Fremont: Explorer for a Restless Nation, for which he won the Gold Medal for nonfiction from the Commonwealth Club of California. He received the Silver Medal for Sand in a Whirlwind and the California Medal for The El Dorado Trail. He now resides in Berkeley, California.

Review:

"A large wide-eyed, genuinely exciting book. [Egan] succeeds in showing exploration as creative initiative rather than individual escapism... It scores as grand storytelling." - Kirkus Reviews "Ferol Egan has maintained a remarkable objectivity, avoiding the trap befalling many biographers who identify and sympathize with their subject... Few contemporary Western writers possess both the patience and the skill to combine a scholarly methodology and apparatus with the effective, readable prose that characterizes the work of Ferol Egan. This massive volume can best be described as a monumental contribution. Authoritative, organized to sustain reader interest, and beautifully written" -California Historical Society

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