“Undaunted Courage” by Stephen E. Ambrose

If you’ve ever wondered how anyone survived the Lewis and Clark expedition, this is the book that will tell you, and you won’t want to put it down.

Ambrose builds the story around Meriwether Lewis: Virginia planter, soldier, Thomas Jefferson’s private secretary, and finally the captain chosen to lead the Corps of Discovery into the unknown. With William Clark at his side, Lewis takes us up the Missouri, over the Rockies, and all the way to the Pacific. Along the way they face grizzlies, starvation, brutal winters and tense meetings with the nations whose lands they cross.

Ambrose writes history like a page-turner, and it’s no surprise this one hit #1 on the New York Times list. This edition includes his introduction celebrating the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase, and E. S. Paxson’s painting of the explorers at Three Forks is on the cover.