Undaunted Courage (Book Review)

As a Christian you are urged to read all sorts of Christian-y things. There is no end to the magazines and catalogs pushing for you to read books about spiritual disciplines, theology, church history, innovation in ministry methodology, and pastoral leadership.

Now, there is nothing wrong with all of this material. In fact, I read quite a bit of it. But the problem with reading only this sort of material is that a Christian can easily lose out on becoming a student of living who learns to make the broader connections between God and life.  Because of this, it has always been my goal to be a wide reader.

In my recent perusing of books that I would like to read, I came across a reference to what was called the definitive book to read if you wanted to know about the explorations of Lewis and Clark across the Mississippi. Their journey took them into the West before it was claimed as part of the United States of America. That book was Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose.

Ambrose is famous as an author who has made American history accessible to the average reader. He has an amazing capacity to distill a tremendous amount of scholarly material and research into books that are riveting and worth reading. Undaunted Courage is an excellent example of his work, and well worth the read.

The book starts by tracing the beginnings of the adventure. Ambrose puts the early life history of Meriwether Lewis, a Virginian who was mentored by President Thomas Jefferson, into the historical context of national development with the westward impulse and the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon. Lewis’ time serving as Jefferson’s personal secretary while living in Jefferson’s home provided the relationship and training for his eventual westward exploration.

Thomas Jefferson had a grand vision to find a westward waterway to connect the eastern United States and the Atlantic coast with the wild lands west of the Rocky Mountains to Pacific. Lewis’ goal was to follow the Missouri River from where it pours into the Mississippi across the Rocky Mountains and the Continental Divide to the Columbia River and, eventually, the Pacific Ocean.

One of the most amazing things about this endeavor is the tremendous vision that Thomas Jefferson had for the nation that exceeded nearly all of his contemporaries. He was able to see things beyond what was known or seen, albeit oftentimes within the limitations of the time. As Dumas Malone says: “Jefferson’s vision extended farther and comprehended more than that of anybody else in public life, and, thinking of himself as working for posterity, he was more concerned that things should be well started than they be quickly finished” (quoted on p. 471). At the same time, Jefferson had the complementary ability to personally groom a man who could practically reveal if that vision could be a reality through exploration.

Ambrose aptly uncovers the important preparations that Meriwether Lewis had to undertake with a journey of this sort. Lewis was obviously a man who flourished under a wide variety of interests and with high trust placed in him by Jefferson. While primarily a military man who was thorough and ordered, Lewis also was creative and able to develop through training in botany and zoology that was critically important for the scientific value of the exploration.

Unique to his time, Lewis chose a co-commander for this mission in William Clark. While Lewis had served under Clark previously in the military, he offered Clark a commission as a fellow captain, thus making the effort a co-led mission with all the rank, glory, and promised rewards equal. As the story unfolds of this unparalleled adventure in exploration, it seems fairly easy to draw the conclusion that Lewis and Clark’s co-leadership brought an increased trust within their exploratory team that served the mission well in the long run.

While much could be said about the two years of travel and discovery – the encounters with Native Americans both friendly and fierce, the frightful dangers of starvation and rough weather, the timely and critical help provided by two Native American women (including Sacagawea), the group’s awe at the vast Rocky Mountains – it is best left to one’s reading of the book itself. Ambrose does a marvelous job of leading the reader into his vivid imagination of these real events and happenings.

Unfortunately, with many awe-inspiring leaders there is a less-than-inspiring life after the large-scale events of which they are a part. Lewis is no exception to this and, in fact, may be one of the most disturbing examples of not finishing life well.

After returning from the trip, Lewis was appointed as the governor of the Louisiana territory based in St. Louis. This appointment led to two clear problems for Meriwether Lewis: 1) he did not have adequate time to complete the editorial work on his journals for publication of his journey and scientific discoveries, and 2) he became embroiled in work that, from a later perspective, was clearly not his forte. While Jefferson may deserve some blame for not protecting Lewis from these responsibilities so that he could bring a fitting conclusion to the journey through preparing his narrative and scientific work for print, Lewis must be held responsible for his own faults.

Through a combination of depression, alcoholism, and under the weight of what he viewed as his failures, Lewis ended his own life violently on October 11, 1809. It was an untimely end to a gifted leader and hero of his time.

At roughly five-hundred pages, this book is not a light and easy read. However, as Ambrose begins the account of their journey, most readers will find it difficult not to want to read on and on during the same sitting, so captivating are the glimpses of the courage demanded of and found within these famed explorers that helped to shape our country, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.