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Maurice Isserman
Maurice Isserman

Maurice Isserman, William R. Kenan Jr.  Professor of History, wrote a review, published in Preservation Magazine, of Exploring Lewis and Clark: Reflections on Men and Wilderness authored by Thomas P. Slaughter (Knopf).

In the review Isserman writes, "Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and the little party they led from St. Louis to the Pacific and back again on their epic journey of discovery in 1804-1806, survived many dangers. They emerged unscathed from hostile standoffs with the Teton Sioux, from the treacherous river rapids they ran in their dugout canoes, and from close encounters with 600-pound grizzly bears intent upon their dismemberment. All of which offers some measure of hope that Lewis and Clark (or at least their historical reputations) will survive a 21st-century brush with literary theory....

"Like any text, the Lewis and Clark journals are, in theory, subject to a potential multitude of equally valid readings; in practice, it seems, we need to rely on postmodern literary critics to discover their true meaning. The journals are 'foggy windows which admit and distort light on the men who wrote them,' Slaughter writes in Exploring Lewis and Clark, and are thus 'far richer' sources 'than historians have generally appreciated.'

... Lewis and Clark weren't simply exemplary leaders of men; they brought to their arduous trip across the North American continent an intellectual curiosity and a scholarly diligence that professional academics in comfortable libraries would do well to emulate. It doesn't take much of a 'deep reading' of Exploring Lewis and Clark to conclude that Slaughter lacks Lewis and Clark's gift for seeing the little things so often overlooked; all he can see is the Big Theory that seems to him to legitimize his hostility to explorers and historians alike. "

The complete article is available on Preservation Magazine's Web site:

 

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