Beyond Lewis and Clark : The Army Explores the West

by Ronda, James P.

• ISBN13: 9780295983561
• ISBN10: 0295983566
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-07-01
• Publisher: Univ of Washington Pr

Summary

InBeyond Lewis and Clark, James Ronda offers a corrective vision of the history of the Corps of Discovery. The nearly exclusive attention paid to Lewis and Clark of late has cast the broader pattern of army exploration in the West into obscurity. In this volume Ronda puts Lewis and Clark into the broad pattern of Enlightenment-era science and empire-building, and establishes how the Jeffersonian model of exploration endured to varying degrees via other army expeditions. Particular attention is paid to John C. Fremont, the pivotal figure in the evolution of the "Army in the West," along with other notable explorers, including Stephen Long and Isaac I. Stevens. In a path-breaking interpretation, Ronda even places the pre-Little Big Horn exploratory ventures of George Armstrong Custer within the paradigm established by Lewis and Clark's initial forays.Beyond Lewis and Clark: The Army Explores the Westis a companion volume to the exhibition organized by the Washington State Historical Society and traveling to the Virginia, Kansas, and Missouri Historical Societies. James P. Ronda holds the H. G. Barnard Chair in Western History at the University of Tulsa. He is the author ofFinding the West: Explorations with Lewis and Clark,Astoria and Empire, andLewis and Clark among the Indians.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Frontispiece	xii
1 Lewis and Clark
Captains West	1	(10)
2 The Adventures of Zebulon Montgomery Pike	11	(6)
3 Stephen H. Long
Into the Plains	17	(9)
4 Making Professional Explorers	26	(3)
5 John Charles Frémont
The Pathfinders West	29	(16)
6 Manifest Destiny and the Soldier
Explorers	45	(2)
7 Soldier
Explorers and the March into Mexico	47	(10)
8 Marking Boundaries
Making Tracks	57	(19)
9 Army Explorers and the Great West	76	(17)
10 Filling Up the Canvas	93	(2)
Suggested Readings	95	(3)
Notes	98	(7)
Credits	105