{"product_id":"bitterroot-the-life-and-death-of-meriwether-lewis-hardback-9780812249842","title":"Bitterroot; The Life and Death of Meriwether Lewis (Hardback) 9780812249842","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eBitterroot\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eThe Life and Death of Meriwether Lewis\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003ePatricia Tyson Stroud (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812249842\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 20 April 2018\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e392 pages, 12 color, 24 b\/w illus.\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.872 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"This book is well worth adding to a Lewis and Clark library or an early national period shelf more generally. One learns many small details here that have escaped even the specialists among us.\" (\u003ci\u003eSouth Dakota History\u003c\/i\u003e) \"\u003ci\u003eBitterroot\u003c\/i\u003e offers a refreshing and overdue new perspective on the complicated and often contradictory life of Meriwether Lewis. Patricia Tyson Stroud carefully separates the verifiable facts from the quick judgments of history that have obscured Lewis's character for more than two centuries. This is an arresting portrait that challenges the conventional wisdom and makes a compelling case to restore Lewis's reputation to the luster he enjoyed in his lifetime.\" (Landon Jones, author of \u003ci\u003eWilliam Clark and the Shaping of the West\u003c\/i\u003e) \"\u003ci\u003eBitterroot\u003c\/i\u003e is a learned account of the heroic and tragic life of Meriwether Lewis set in the historical context of early America. In his amazing career as soldier, explorer, and pioneer naturalist, and later as politician, he had to deal with unsympathetic government bureaucrats and the animosity of scoundrels in all walks of life.\" (Alfred E. Schuyler, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University) \"Rich in analysis, \u003ci\u003eBitterroot: The Life and Death of Meriwether Lewis\u003c\/i\u003e provides a candid look and adds provocative insights into the historical conversation surrounding Meriwether Lewis.\" (Jay H. Buckley, author of \u003ci\u003eWilliam Clark: Indian Diplomat\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn America's early national period, Meriwether Lewis was a towering figure. Selected by Thomas Jefferson to lead the expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase, he was later rewarded by Jefferson with the governorship of the entire Louisiana Territory. Yet within three years, plagued by controversy over administrative expenses, Lewis found his reputation and career in tatters. En route to Washington to clear his name, he died mysteriously in a crude cabin on the Natchez Trace in Tennessee. Was he a suicide, felled by his own alcoholism and mental instability? Most historians have agreed. Patricia Tyson Stroud reads the evidence to posit another, even darker, ending for Lewis.\u003cbr\u003e Stroud uses Lewis's find, the bitterroot flower, with its nauseously pungent root, as a symbol for his reputation as a purported suicide. It was this reputation that Thomas Jefferson promulgated in the memoir he wrote prefacing the short account of Lewis's historic expedition published five years after his death. Without investigation of any kind, Jefferson, Lewis's mentor from boyhood, reiterated undocumented assertions of Lewis's serious depression and alcoholism.\u003cbr\u003e That Lewis was the courageous leader of the first expedition to explore the continent from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean has been overshadowed by presuppositions about the nature of his death. Stroud peels away the layers of misinformation and gossip that have obscured Lewis's rightful reputation. Through a retelling of his life, from his resourceful youth to the brilliance of his leadership and accomplishments as a man, \u003ci\u003eBitterroot\u003c\/i\u003e shows that Jefferson's mystifying assertion about the death of his protÉgÉ is the long-held bitter root of the Meriwether Lewis story.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor's Note\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1. An Unexpected Proposal\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2. Early Life\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3. The Threat of War\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4. Jefferson's Choice\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5. Cocaptain\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6. Doctrine of Discovery\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 7. Under Way\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 8. The Teton Sioux\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 9. Fort Mandan\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 10. A \"Darling\" Project\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 11. Across the Rockies to the Pacific\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 12. The Return\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 13. Unspeakable Joy\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 14. Philadelphia Interlude\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 15. A Classic Cast of Characters\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 16. Land of Opportunity\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 17. Honor Questioned\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 18. Defamed\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 19. Jefferson's Letter\u003cbr\u003e A Selection of Plants Collected by Meriwether Lewis\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52559201763608,"sku":"9780812249842","price":34.58,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/bitterroot-the-life-and-death-of-meriwether-lewis-hardback-9780812249842","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}