Beyond Lewis & Clark : the Army explores the West

In Beyond 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 West is 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 of Finding the West: Explorations with Lewis and Clark, Astoria and Empire, and Lewis and Clark among the Indians.… (more)