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 God's Country by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book The Jet Sex by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Fallible Authors by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Before Orientalism by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Surviving Slavery in the British Caribbean by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Russian Jews Between the Reds and the Whites, 1917-1920 by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Parrots and Nightingales by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Christian Society and the Crusades, 1198-1229 by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Washington Internships by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Pivotal Tuesdays by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Madhouses, Mad-Doctors, and Madmen by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book The Making and Unmaking of a Saint by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Thorns in the Flesh by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Adam Usk's Secret by Patricia Tyson Stroud
Cover of the book Becoming Penn 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