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Lewis and Clark

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Lewis and Clark

By: William R. Lighton
Narrated by: Kevin Stilwell
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About this listen

In the years 1804, 1805, and 1806, two men commanded an expedition which explored the wilderness that stretched from the mouth of the Missouri River to where the Columbia enters the Pacific, and dedicated to civilization a new empire. Their names were Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. This book relates that adventure from it’s inception through its completion as well as the effect the expedition had upon the history of the United States.

Public Domain (P)2012 Audible, Inc. Americas Classics State & Local United States

Editor reviews

The expedition commissioned by Thomas Jefferson and led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark from 1804 to 1806 is a well-known venture to chart and explore the northwestern area of what became the United States. Here is an account in their own words of that journey, from the notes taken by Lewis and Clark. The audio contains countless remarkable stories, however it is very near to the original source document and Kevin Stilwell, who performs the journals steadily and unwaveringly, powers through the sometimes challenging accounts with journalistic gravity, rewarding any Lewis and Clark fanatic or student of early American history with a valuable and intimate look at one the country’s most renowned expeditions and it’s first impressions of the land.
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This book is the unabridged diaries of the famous Lewis and Clark 1804-1806 journey across the US continental divide to the Pacific Ocean and back. It was a triumph and I was gripped from the opening to the end, 70 hours later. It reads the diaries of Lewis and then Clark for each day. It can be repetitive as they often copied each others diaries or field notes so that each had a comprehensive record of the entire journey. But it is worth it. This is the only way to get into the minds and the emotions of the explorers. Books about their travels which condense and summarise the plot now seem glib by comparison and some of the TV/youtube documentaries about the journey are quite inaccurate. The meeting of Sacagawea and her people after her abduction by Plains Indians and return by the Corps is a high point. As is the true friendship that seemed to arise between the Corps and the Nez Perce tribe. I would recommend using googlearth to map the journey - I got a lot more out of it knowing what they were describing. I won't read an exploration book that isn't the true words of the explorer after this. Magnificent!

The narration was also excellent. Just the right accent to make it believable (to a Brit) that it is being read by the authors and the right intonation to display some of the emotion of the journey but where the diaries were written at leisure in the evenings or some days after the events they describe (from their rough field notes).

The best book I have read or listened to.

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Really enjoyed the details of each Lewis and Clark. It does repeat each day, but from each of their perspectives. I love that this exists as it helps remind us what most of the US was like a bit more than 200 years ago. Thank you!

Wow, so much detail.

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Small wonder this takes seventy hours , everything is repeated two or three times , boring like you can’t believe , ideal for insomniacs , give it a miss .

70 hours !?!?

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...Like, seriously, who asked for this? And what possible purpose does it serve?

After all, if you need to reference Lewis & Clark's journal entries for research or what have you, then surely you need a print, e-book or kindle version which you can easily skim through to find the relevant passages. And even if you're sight impaired, then surely braille, large-print versions and text to speech programs exist!

So to pay a voice artist to record 70+ hours of the most dry, tedious, banal and technical journal entries to ever be recorded with no framing devise or context of any kind?... What were the producers of this audiobook thinking??? And what undiagnosed condition compelled me to actually listen to it all!? Dx

Why Does This Audiobook Exist?...

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