Bitterroot

The Life and Death of Meriwether Lewis

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, Revolutionary Period (1775-1800), Biography & Memoir, Historical
Cover of the book Bitterroot by Patricia Tyson Stroud, University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Patricia Tyson Stroud ISBN: 9780812294712
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc. Publication: February 23, 2018
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press Language: English
Author: Patricia Tyson Stroud
ISBN: 9780812294712
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication: February 23, 2018
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press
Language: English

In 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.

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.

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, Bitterroot shows that Jefferson's mystifying assertion about the death of his protégé is the long-held bitter root of the Meriwether Lewis story.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In 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.

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.

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, Bitterroot shows that Jefferson's mystifying assertion about the death of his protégé is the long-held bitter root of the Meriwether Lewis story.

More books from University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.

Cover of the book Reinventing Childhood After World War II by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Deans and Truants by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book The Americas in the Spanish World Order by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Human Rights in Latin America by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book The Conversion of Herman the Jew by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book On the Old Saw by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Site, Sight, Insight by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Colonial Complexions by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Citizenship and the Origins of Women's History in the United States by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book The Catholic Calumet by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Poetry Wars by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book The People's Network by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Next Year in Marienbad by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Religion and Profit by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Tea Sets and Tyranny by Patricia Tyson Stroud
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy