The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, meticulously edited by Elliott Coues, presents a critical anthology that consists of an intricate tapestry of exploration, endurance, and scholarly pursuit. Within its pages, readers will find a rich array of documentation and commentary on the early 19th-century expeditions led by Pike. The collection transcends mere historical documentation; it embodies a literary journey that explores the myriad ways in which these explorations contributed to the nascent American identity and the expansion westward. The anthologys diverse literary styles, from diaries to letters, enrich its historical depth and provide a panoramic view of American exploration narratives, making it a significant contribution to the field of American Studies. The backgrounds of Coues and Pike, as well as the other contributors reflected in the various documents and analyses within the volume, span a vast spectrum of early American life, military expedition, and scholarly rigor. Coues, an eminent historian and ornithologist, brings a unique scholarly perspective to Pike's raw and unfiltered accounts of the American frontier. This convergence of perspectives deeply enriches the anthology's exploration of themes like sovereignty, survival, and the human relationship with untamed landscapes. The collection aligns with and contributes to the understanding of American expansionism and the early republic's exploratory fervor, showcasing how these varied voices and narratives coalesce to chart the contours of Americas westward expansion. This anthology is recommended for readers seeking to immerse themselves in the depths of Americas exploratory saga, offered through a blend of firsthand expedition accounts and scholarly analysis. The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike offers a unique opportunity to explore the multifaceted challenges and triumphs of early American explorers, through a lens that is both panoramic and penetrative. It invites readers not only to witness but to critically engage with the narratives of persistence, ambition, and the forging of a national identity in the rugged terrains of early America. For scholars, students, and enthusiasts of American history and literature, this collection serves as an indispensable resource that fosters a deeper understanding of the American spirit.

This valuable and long-out-of-print edition of Pike's Southwestern journals is being reissued on the bicentennial of the journey with a new Introduction by historian Mark L. Gardner.

It was November 1806. The explorers had gone without food for one day, then two. Their leader, not yet thirty, drove on, determined to ascend the great mountain. Waist deep in snow, he reluctantly turned back. But Zebulon Pike had not been defeated. His name remained on the unclimbed peak-and new adventures lay ahead of him and his republic. In Citizen Explorer, historian Jared Orsi provides the first modern biography of this soldier and explorer, who rivaled contemporaries Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Born in 1779, Pike joined the army and served in frontier posts in the Ohio River valley before embarking on a series of astonishing expeditions. He sought the headwaters of the Mississippi and later the sources of the Arkansas and Red Rivers, which led him to Pike's Peak and capture by Spanish forces. Along the way, he met Aaron Burr and General James Wilkinson; Auguste and Pierre Couteau, patriarchs of St. Louis's most powerful fur-trading family, who sought to make themselves indispensible to Jefferson's administration; as well as British fur-traders, Native Americans, and officers of the Spanish empire, all of whom resisted the expansion of the United States. Through Pike's life, Orsi examines how American nationalism thinned as it stretched west, from the Jeffersonian idealism on the Atlantic to a practical, materialist sensibility on the frontier. Surveying and gathering data, Pike sought to incorporate these distant territories into the republic, to overlay the west with the American map grid; yet he became increasingly dependent for survival on people who had no attachment to the nation he served. He eventually died in that service, in a victorious battle in the War of 1812. Written from an environmental perspective, rich in cultural and political context, Citizen Explorer is a state-of-the-art biography of a remarkable man.