Beyond Lewis & Clark

"Beyond Lewis and Clark: The Army Explores the West is a companion volume to the exhibition by the same name, organized by the Washington State Historical Society. With stops at the Virginia, Washington, Kansas, and Missouri Historical Societies, Beyond Lewis and Clark, the exhibition, is one of the most ambitious interpretive projects of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial." "Written by James Ronda, Beyond Lewis and Clark, the book, offers a corrective vision of the history of the expedition. 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 places Lewis and Clark within the larger perspective of Enlightenment-era science and empire-building and establishes how the Jeffersonian model of exploration endured to varying degrees via other army expeditions. In this regard, particular attention is paid to the pivotal figure in the evolution of the "Army in the West" - John C. Fremont - and other notable explorers, including Stephen H. Long and Isaac I. Stevens."--BOOK JACKET.