3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Vast and Endless Narrative...., October 21, 2007
This review is from: A Vast and Open Plain: The Writings of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in North Dakota, 1804-1806 (Hardcover)
Clay Jenkinson's "A Vast and Open Plain" should be a great read - it includes day by day journal entries of the five journal keepers of one of the greatest expeditions in American history: the Corps of Discovery, who traveled from Saint Louis, up the Missouri River, across the Rocky Mountains, and then down to the Pacific Ocean - and back again, fighting weather, hostile inhabitants, rotting food, and uncharted wilderness. But I have two major problems with the book.
First is the endless notations by editor Clay Jenkinson. From his 35 page introduction (bear in mind this is a LARGE book, with rather small print in two columns) to his footnotes which frequently occupy more than half the page, he is everywhere, and the book tells more about him and his strong opinions than about the Lewis and Clark expedition. Second, with few exceptions, the three journalists who were not Lewis and Clark frequently seem to have compared notes; it is the rare day when one of them (usually Ordway) says something that no one else says, or even uses different wording.
One of the interesting things in the book is that weather observations are made each day (although temperature readings cease after the company's thermometer breaks); Lewis and Clark and their men apparently didn't realize either how hot or how cold what is now North Dakota could get, nor the number of mosquitoes that would plague them (when they leave Fort Mandan in April of 1805, there are days when literally the only thing remarked upon is the mosquitoes).
Another point of interest are the personal letters and the lists of provisions and trade goods provided in the book. The letters give a better idea of the inner life of both Meriwether Lewis and William Clark than their journals do; the journals, after all, were intended to be presented to President Thomas Jefferson when they returned to Washington, D.C. The list of goods, and the descriptions of whom they were for, and to whom they were ultimately given, tells us even more about the men of the expedition.
The journals entries make clear the feelings of the Americans towards the Native Americans they met along the way. By today's standards they were incredibly racist and intolerant, treating the people they met like (rather dim) children, and mocking their religious ceremonies. They seem to ignore the fact that without the help of those people, the expedition wouldn't have survived. But hindsight is generally clearer than the view on the trip, isn't it?
For historians and college students, this book might be a good gift. But for people looking for a good story, there are better Lewis and Clark books available. I realize that Jenkinson's intent was only to show what happened to the Corps of Discovery on the days they were in what is now North Dakota. But even the native North Dakotan feels cheated out of "the rest of the story" when the Corps moves into Montana and the entries end until the return in 1806.
If you're a Lewis and Clark fanatic and don't mind endless footnotes, and the wretched and inconsistent spelling of the journal keepers, this is the book for you. Most of us will find ourselves endlessly bored or annoyed, and only occasionally fascinated.
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