Ambrose precedes his reputation with this excellent account of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The primary focus of the book is Lewis with a heavy dose of Thomas Jefferson and his influence on Lewis. The book is very detailed and an accurate account of the Corps of Discovery expedition. The details could be dry for some readers, but for those with an inherent interest in history, this is a great read. Undaunted Courage builds upon previous biographies of the Lewis/Clark expedition and adds its own spin through the discussion of Jefferson. I learned lots from this book and would highly recommend it.

What a word picture Ambrose paints of this wonderfull and dangerous experience. I understand that he has been to a lot of the locations that the L&C expedition traveled.

We are planning a paddlewheel excursion of the Columbia and Snake rivers out of Portland this spring. This book and other accounts of this expedition will give us a better appreciation of this historic event.

I really enjoyed this book. It is 20 CDs long and I got thru it pretty quick. I really feel I now know the entire incredible story. Jefferson and Lewis were true genius and Lewis and Clark were true heroes.

Ambrose brings the magic of the Lewis & Clark expedition alive with this magnificent book.

A great author can struggle with a pedestrian story and a great story be tarnished by an unskilled author. However, Undaunted Courage is the re-telling of a classic story from the heart of America by a great author who also loves and lives the material. There are so many mini-stories woven into the book that it helps to stimulate entertaining discussions of this historic accomplishment.

The book also brought to me a far greater appreciation of Jefferson's great impact on art and science in the young republic. While we think of thte expedition in terms of its impact on our political history, it was equally important in gaining an understanding of the biological and geographical wonders of the uncharted wilderness.

It is a wonderful gift to young people to help them understand the foundation of our westward growth. Reads with the excitement of a novel and the enlightenment of good history.

It is hard not to repeat the many good things said about this book other than to mention that if I were to be allowed only 5 books to take for a year of isolation this would be one.

It's easy, but rewarding reading.

Highly recommended and a book that's filled a lot of Christmas stockings and birthday packages in our family.

This is the most enjoyable book I have ever read. The narrative style of Stephen Ambrose takes what could be a dry lecture and makes it extremely interesting. The book reads like a best selling novel. It also leaves the reader asking what about Captain William Clark? He receives minimal coverage.

The book gives a nice background on Captain Meriwether Lewis. The book shows how Lewis' background prepared Lewis for the journey and how it provided the relationship he had with Jefferson to lead to his selection for the journey. Lewis was Jefferson's personal secretary when selected to lead the voyage that would take him up the Missouri River, to wintering with the Indians, to the Rockies, over the mountains, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, and back. Lewis experienced hardships and saw wonderful sights. The sites included herds of buffalo and Indian tribes with no previous contact with white men. He and his partner, Captain William Clark, made the first maps of the trans-Mississippi West, provided data on the flora and fauna of the Louisiana Purchase territory, and most importantly established the American claim to Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

The book shows how Lewis is financially underwritten by a variety of characters. This list includes Jefferson, Clark, numerous Indian chiefs, and Sacagawea, the Indian girl who accompanied the expedition, along with the French-Indian hunter Drouillard, the great naturalists of Philadelphia, the French and Spanish fur traders of St. Louis, John Quincy Adams, and many more leading political, scientific, and military figures of the turn of the 19th century.

This is a book about a hero and national unity. This is a book also about a tragedy. When Lewis returned to Washington in the fall of 1806, he was a national hero. Lewis greatest failure was he did not get his journals and notes organized and published. The scholarly value of those would have been great. Publishing them in a timely manner would have made Lewis financially independent. Instead Lewis took to drink, drugs, engaged in land speculation, piled up debts he could not pay, made jealous political enemies, experienced severe depression (probably from the drugs), and ultimately took his own life. Read and reviewed by Jimmie A. Kepler.