Book Summary In Undaunted Courage By Stephen E. Ambrose

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Recommended: The life of a slave

Have you ever wondered what it was like to have explored the territory of the Louisiana Purchase? A mass of land never recorded on document, the unknown behind it, the adventure it entails! In the book Undaunted Courage written by biographer Stephen E. Ambrose we are given a look at Meriwether Lewis's personal journal. The author takes us from Meriwethers birth and early life, through his expedition, and his political career, then finally into his untimely death.
The book opens up with the author talking about his journey home from a summer stay in a cabin in the north. The relevance of this is due to his subsequent stop made at his Aunts house along the way. The author notes that she had a “handsome” set of an edition of Lewis' journals. After acquiring the journals from his Aunt the author states that he read them and frequently discussed them with his Aunt, so much so that they even followed the path taken by Lewis and his group of explorers. All of this leads to explaining his love for the exploration that had taken place so many years ago, with his ending statement saying he felt “privileged” to have spent time with Lewis.
The first several chapters of the book explain Meriwethers life before his undertaking of the expedition. The author informs us of Lewis' birth in 1774 to a Virginia plantation family. The reader is informed of the years Lewis had spent living in Georgia, going back to Virginia at the age of thirteen. Lewis spent the years till his eighteenth birthday studying a formal education, in preparation to manage the land he would inherit from his father. Lewis' time on the family plantation was short lived, because he volunteered for the Virginia militia where he would spend the next six years of his life. Meriw...

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...ors credit as the expedition was very lengthy. This slower pace may also be due to my reading of comics which are paced incredibly fast to keep the attention of the reader. All in all the detail is necessary because it is detailing the Lewis' own writings during his life and adventure.
From his his birth in Virginia, through his childhood and all the way until his untimely death the book recounted the life of Meriwether Lewis as told by Stephen E. Ambrose. The author had a great respect for the man behind the adventure after reading a copy of his journals. I did wonder what it would have been like to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase, and now after reading this book I have a slight idea as to what they went through. Though I will never truly know because of the separation in how we live, but I did get to live it vicariously while reading this book.

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