Across the Continent: Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and the Making of America. Edited by Douglas Seefeldt, Jeffery L. Hantman, and Peter Onuf (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005. 222 pp. ISBN 0-8139-2313-1. Call no. F592.A49 2004).
Across the Continent was written in the wake of the Bicentennial celebration of the Corps of Discovery's expedition (1803-1806) and contributed to by the University of Virginia's Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Project. The goal of the book is to look into the popular image of the Lewis and Clark (L&C) expedition and is designed "not to demolish the myth but rather to explore the complicated ways in which the explorers' world connects to our own," (p. 6). Five different authors contribute five dissimilar chapters to form a multi-perspective approach that investigates the mythic western voyage and reveals Thomas Jefferson's true agenda of National security and his hopes of flowering commercial alliances. Thomas Jefferson was a highly educated man who understood the influence of French, British, and Spanish traders had in the distant newly acquired lands. This book reveals Lewis and Clark were chartered not only to explore and record the Missouri River basin, but also to confirm Jefferson's newly assumed role as "Great American Father" and to form ties that would spur profitable economic alliances all while secretly investigating the European influences in the Louisiana Territory (p. 4).
Chapter one written by Alan Taylor and chapter two by Jenry Morsman investigate the geopolitical importance of L&C's expedition and how the true goals of commerce were hidden behind a thin layer of Enlightenment Era science so Britain, Spain, and France would not feel intimidated or threatened by the expedition (p. 38). Taylor claims science was used to discover resources and peoples so that later, they could be systematically included in the imperialistic goals for power and prestige in future commercial endeavors (p.20). For inspiration and information, Taylor and Morsman both point out Jefferson was well versed in Alexander Mackenzie's diary of his two expeditions from Canada to the Arctic Circle and the Western Coastal regions. Taylor calls Mackenzie's book an "invaluable guide" to L&C (p. 38). With help from Mackenzie's book, L&C were to chart the middle portion of America; Morsman calls their journey a reconnaissance mission of all sorts (p. 59). Morsman declares Jefferson sought a connection with the unknown tribes of the west to afford them a trustee position and they then would provide protection from encroaching European powers; hence securing the interior of the Nation with new allies (p. 76).
Chapter three written by anthropologist, David Hurst Thomas investigates Thomas Jefferson's role in developing the study of American Archaeology, but notes his legacy is both good and bad (p. 84). Jefferson's good points, according to Thomas, are his aide in the development of the "four-field" agenda of archaeology (archaeology, cultural anthropology, linguistics, and physical anthropology) with his early research on the Indians of Virginia (p. 91). Jefferson's love of Natural History inspired his instructions to L&C to collect cultural specimens on their trip. According to Thomas, Jefferson viewed Indians as specimens as well, and firmly believed they were childlike and studied them as "living fossils" which inspired others to do the same (p. 113). This idea drove a wedge permanently between Native Americans and Anthropologist's; creating Jefferson's bad legacy (p. 113-115). Chapter four written by Kenneth Prewitt investigates Jefferson's role in the national census and how race classification flourished there after creating categories of people not included in politics.
Chapter four written by Douglas Seefeldt brings the subject full circle. Seefeldt looks at historical landscapes and how public memories in the American Southwest are generally abusive and are truly a legacy of conquest (p. 169-171). His goal is to elaborate the need for a group memory that is more inclusive of the layers in the region. New Mexico and the history of the Spanish influence over the Indian cultures is his example. He calls for an inclusion of multi-cultural histories that bear the fruit of truth, rather than continuing the myths of romanticized western history (p. 199). He clarifies the books thesis that multi-perspective histories only work to enhance the field of history and allows for more knowledge in seeing the future.
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