If you are going to read only one book about American history in your entire lifetime, I would suggest Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose. I’ve always been fascinated by the Lewis and Clark expedition, and this book, published in 1997, is history come alive. And for good reason – Ambrose makes extensive use of Meriwether Lewis’s own daily journals, giving us a direct eye into the majestic but often hostile wilderness. Ambrose himself spent many years following the trail, on horseback and by canoe, immersing himself in the rugged terrain that the explorers traveled over 200 years ago.

Most of us at some time in our lives have been on camping trips, sat around campfires, battled giant mosquitoes, and listened to unsettling sounds in the darkness beyond the firelight. But imagine doing this for more than 800 nights. Imagine you are doing this in completely unmapped territory, seeing the Rocky Mountains for the first time, being stalked by a grizzly, an animal by the way that no white man has ever seen before. Picture being deathly ill knowing there is no doctor for hundreds of miles, and that you are about to run out of food. Think about how your feet feel when you are crossing such rough ground that your leather moccasins (sorry, no insulated stabilized hiking boots available) wear out every 3 days – and you have to make new ones yourself.

In addition to mapping the entire country west of the Mississippi, Lewis and Clark discovered over 300 species of plants and animals, including, as well as the above-mentioned grizzlies, coyotes, prairie dogs, mountain lions and the Canada goose. It is difficult to imagine the satisfaction, the wonderment of discovery, that these two men must have felt. And yet – this is one of the elements that Ambrose handles best – Lewis confided to his journal on his 31st birthday, observed on the trail, that “I had as yet done but little, very little indeed, to further the happiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and . . . resolved in future, to redouble my exertions. . . to live for mankind, as I have heretofore lived for myself.” By putting this all too human, very familiar, face on history, Ambrose lifts the story straight out of the history books and puts it firmly in our hearts Ambrose has always been one of my favorite authors because much of his writing has centered around WWII, a particular interest of mine. But as much as I’ve enjoyed Band of Brothers and Citizen Soldiers, none of those books can touch Undaunted Courage for the sheer magic of its storytelling . . . a 200-year-old page-turner.