Finding the West: Explorations with Lewis and Clark (Histories of the American Frontier Series) - Softcover

Ronda, James P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826324185 ISBN 13: 9780826324184

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press, 2006

Synopsis

One of the foremost historians of Lewis and Clark, Ronda grounds Finding the West in the insights and reflections he has gleaned from some twenty years of research and writing about this pivotal era. But above all else, Ronda's book is centered on stories and storytellers. As he writes: "This is a book about many storytellers. Their words are French-Canadian, Shoshone, New Hampshire English, Hidatsa, and Chinookan." Ronda documents not only the stories that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark offered about their "road across the continent," but also the large and important stories by and about the native peoples whose trails they followed and whose lands they described in their journals and reports and on their maps.

The beginning of the nineteenth century represents a time when America passed into a headlong rush for empire and when "the West" loomed large as a dream for some and a nightmare for others, an era that irrevocably shaped the new American nation in the two hundred years that followed. Whoever the storyteller in the aftermath of that encounter--native or newcomer--the stories all soon revolved around a common theme: the coming of the winds of change.

Ronda's masterful interpretation of the young Republic's fascination with the West is written with grace, narrative sweep, and a conviction that history should, above all else, engage and inform us.

"This is a really outstanding, important work."--Professor John L. Allen, University of Wyoming

About this title

From the Publisher:

Histories of the American Frontier series

From the Back Cover:

Documents not only the stories that Lewis and Clark offered about their "road across the continent," but also the large and important stories by and about the Native peoples whose trails they followed and whose lands they described in their journals.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0826324185
• ISBN 13: 9780826324184
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160