This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark

Most accounts of the Lewis and Clark expedition focus on the two men. Craig Fehrman broadens the lens considerably. This Vast Enterprise draws on recent scholarship to examine the expedition as a political project shaped by Jefferson’s vision for westward expansion, as an encounter with Native nations who had their own perspectives on what was happening, and as a complex event whose consequences played out very differently for different people. Fehrman is particularly good on Sacagawea and on the various Native communities that assisted, observed, and were affected by the Corps of Discovery. The book doesn’t tear down Lewis and Clark—it contextualizes them, which is more useful. Readers who read Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage a generation ago will find this a useful companion or corrective.