From the early 1500's up through and culminating with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, DeVoto's genius shines through , leaving no stone unturned for North American exploration. We read about the exploratory efforts of the Spanish, French, English and Americans, all attempting to locate the mythical water passage to the Pacific for commerce and trade.There is much to be learned from "Course of Empire" and the reader will no doubt come away enlightened with a better understanding of North American exploration. The book can also become somewhat exhaustive for some readers, with over 600 pages (including notes). At times the reader is subjected to the international diplomatic chessgames of geopolitical strategies, with the resulting ramifications thereof, between Spain, France, England and the U.S. This can, and somewhat does, act as a brain defoliant, putting the reader into periodic states of sluggishness and fog. Still, a most insightful read of how North America was discovered. An historical classic.

Occasionally, I discover a book that is so great that I just want to grab my friends by the lapel and shout, "You just have to read this!" DeVoto in THE COURSE OF EMPIRES is not only highly informative, he has helped alter the way I view the course of American history and the way I view the geography of the United States. The book is not only informative and vision-altering: it is superbly well written. As a writer, Bernard DeVoto reminds me a great deal of Shelby Foote's historical work on the Civil War. Both DeVoto and Foote are novelists who brought their formidable literary skills to historical subject matter, and who framed their histories as narratives. Also like Foote, DeVoto never allows his narrative to overwhelm the history. At this point, this is my favorite book of all that I have read in 2002.

On one level, the content of this book is displayed by the maps that begin each chapter of the book: a topographical map of North America is shown, with the areas as yet unexplored by Europeans in a gray shade. With each successive chapter, less and less of the map is shrouded in gray. But in a way, this is deceptive, because, in fact, the book is less about the history of the exploration of the US than in illustrating the geographical logic of the landmass currently making up the core of the United States. Or, as DeVoto writes in the Preface, he wants to provide an extended gloss on some paragraphs of Lincoln's Second Address to the Nation (i.e., what today would be called his second State of the Union address). In that Address, Lincoln argues that the geography of the United States makes it impossible for there to exist more than one nation in the region. The notion of secession and the formation of a second nation is repudiated by the land itself, not merely the lack of natural barriers of one area from another, but the way in which the entire region was unbreakably linked together by the extensive river system in the American interior. Lincoln saw that the geography, the river system, made it inevitable that there would be but a single nation. In this way, Lincoln, like no American president since Polk and Jefferson, understood the logic of the land. DeVoto's primary task in his book, far more than recounting the history of the exploration of North America, is the elucidation of the fact that the United States was destined to be a single country, and why this was inevitable.

THE COURSE OF EMPIRE has the best maps I have ever seen in a history book. No matter what part of the book I was reading, it was possible to turn only a few pages away to find a map of the area under discussion. The only exception is near the very end of the book, where a key but cramped map of the Lewis and Clark expedition appears. It was, however, the only time that I had any trouble following one of the maps. Unfortunately, it was during the highpoint of the book: the recounting of Lewis and Clark's discovery of a route from the Missouri to the Columbia River, and the exploration of the region.

Although this is the third book in the trilogy of history books DeVoto wrote on the American West, this is the one that should be read first. Both ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI and YEAR OF DECISION: 1846 will be enriched by having read this one first. I heartily recommend that anyone with any interest in American history read this. For those especially interested in the American West, it is nothing short of essential.

De Voto's narrative of the first three centuries of European exploration in North America is a classic -- inevitably superceded in some details since its publication (1952) but unmatched in conveying a sense of the continent's geography as perceived by the early adventurers. Although it's not as tightly integrated as the more chronologically limited "Year of Decision", this is probably De Voto's finest work.

If you are doing historical research you will love this book. It is an extensive listing of names, locations and dates. However, I'm not sure what the point is of knowing that so-and-so was at xxx creek on a certain day. I would have liked more insight on individuals, more character development, a better understanding of what their lives and daily challenges were.
The book doesn't flow--it is a collection of facts that are not well synthesized.
Although the characterization of the Indians is certainly not politically correct today, it does reflect the experiences and attitudes of the time. It makes it clear that relations between Indians and the frontiersmen varied greatly by tribe, the individuals, and circumstances.

Whereas Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" got me interested in the early exploration of the American West, "Across the Wide Missouri" got me interested in the actual lives of the mountain man and fur trapper/traders, and how they also explored unknown regions of the west. Their day to day existence and survival amongst the Indians, dealing with the forces of nature, the early stages of Manifest Destiny, etc. were all to me mind boggling. DeVoto brings to life the fur trade at the peak of its industry. I must agree with a couple reviewers though on how the text does get somewhat wordy and complex, the list of characters involved is quite lengthy and one is always flipping back and forth to the maps and notes. But this is what it takes to tell the whole story. From his bibliography one can pick and choose which books are of interest to the reader and take it from there, that's what I have done. I would recommend this book to those of you that are interested in this time period.

There are a lot of things about this book I don't like. First, and most seriously, it's incredibly complicated and dense, a virtual catalog of the comings and goings of hundreds of characters over a six year (1832-1838) period. You need a scorecard and an atlas to keep track of the players. Secondly, the author's judgments about Indians are politically incorrect and come close to being racist. Example: the "laborious accretion which convolutes the fore-brain and increases the cultural heritage" makes the white man superior to the Indian. And, third, DeVoto's wordiness (see preceding sentence) and flip judgements are ever so cute. But I've had this book on my shelf for many years and have read it through more than once. I can overlook the irritations because DeVoto tells a magnificient story about a magnificient land. "Broken Hand" Fitzgerald, Bridger, Carson and their colleagues are great American heroes, warts and all. Someday, I hope that a writer with the soul of a poet and the diligence of a scholar writes a better book than this about the mountain men. Until that happens, we have Across the Wide Missouri.