Lewis and Clark: Lewis and Clark

by Carolyn Ives Gilman

Book Overview

Two hundred years ago Lewis and Clark, two men shaped by Jefferson's Enlightenment ideas, encountered an Indian world they only partly understood. Their discoveries and the artifacts from their... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1588340996
• ISBN13: 9781588340993
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books (DC)
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 5.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 9.4" x 12.3"

Customer Reviews

Your "PC" is my history.

My my, all the fits about this book - it is "PC,' or it is revisionist, what ever that means. In all, this is a good book which attempts to be balanced and soothe all the nerves of the thin skinned who still think Americans are a privileged people with a Manifest Destiny to do what they will to other cultures.

Crossing the Divide

This is an outstanding book: lucidly written, well-reasoned, soundly researched, and visually appealing. In my review of this book and others on the Lewis and Clark expeditiion, published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I state that the subtitle refers to the divide the author crosses, that is, the divide that has so far minimized or ignored the crucial role played by Indians, including Indian women, in making the explorers' long journey successful. Carolyn Gilman crosses this divide skilllfully and diplomatically. Granted, readers and viewers who resist fresh interpretations that grant to non-whites and women the recognition they deserve, as does this book, are likely to call her approach "politically correct." That label misses the point. The appropriate label for the author, the book, and exhibition it accompanies is "h.h.," that is, "historically honest." Cross the divide with the author, and that is what you will discover.My review can be found at .

Important book, marred by political correctness

This book is the catalogue to a Lewis & Clark Exhibit being put together by the Smithsonian and Missouri Historical Society. First, the good news. The exhibit (and book) documents and presents over 400 objects and artifacts related to the L & C expedition. These items have been gathered from institutions from all over the world (such as the American Philosophical Society, Smithsonian, Library of Congress, National Archives, etc.) The objects presented consists of maps, art work, journal excerpts, expedition artifacts, Indian artifacts. Some of the object are directly traced to the expedition; others (such as some of the Indian artifacts) are presented as examples of objects that Lewis & Clark describe in their journals. Each object is described, photographed, and documented. One chapter of the book describes (with flow charts) how the expedition artifacts have traveled over the past 200 years and how the items reached various institutions. The photographs are beautiful, the book layout is stunning. The book is well-worth the money for this alone.Unfortunately, as with many Lewis and Clark books, the text (witten by Carolyn Gilman)is marred by political correctness. For example, one whole chapter is devoted to the role of women in the tribal society versus the roles of women in post-colonial society. Why this is relevant to the Lewis and Clark expedition escapes me. But then, I am a man, so I am likely too stupid to understand this. Ms. Gilman calls the biblical creation account in Genesis the "Euro-American" creation story. No Carolyn, the biblical creation story arose in Mesopotamia about 4000 years ago. The Corps of Discovery is basically presented as a bunch of stupid white men whose trip would have been so much easier if they had only listened to the Indians. Well, they did listen to the Indians, on many ocasions. At one point, she briefly mentions how the Corps hired an Indian (Old Toby) to guide the Corps through the Bitteroots. She fails to mention that Old Toby got them lost. However, this does not stop her from criticizing Clark for failing to listen to Sakajawea, who knew a shorter path. Apparently, in this case, Clark listened to the wrong Indian. She attributes the fact that the Corps was able to shoot the waterfalls on the Columbia River to "luck," because the local Indian tribes were sure that the Corps would fail. Hey, why not praise the skill of the Corps? They had been paddling rivers for 1 1/2 years, maybe they learned something. Her most disgraceful writing is her all too brief description of William Clark's post expedition career, in which she accuses him of "Ethnic Cleansing." Of course, she does not provide much detail to support this outrageous statement, which I consider to be gutless. These type of statements are most unfortunate because there is a lot of good information in the text. The descriptions of tribal society are excellent. The mapping section is, in general, very good, even though