HIST 40733
Fall 2009
Reading guide: James P. Ronda, Finding the West: Explorations with Lewis and Clark.
Foreword and Preface (“Many Extraordinary Stories”)
- What do these sections lead you to expect from the book?
- What does Ronda mean by terms such as “moral consequences” and “aspect book”?
- Does the book argue a thesis? If so, what is it?
- From what perspective or point of view does the author write?
- Is he biased? How?
- How does this book relate to a course on the 19th-century American West?
- Why do you suppose I assigned it and what do you suppose I want you to get out of it?
- Who were Lewis and Clark? What did they do? When? Where?
(1) “A Promise of Rivers: Thomas Jefferson and the Exploration of Western Waterways”
- What thesis does this chapter argue?
- What does this chapter’s title mean and why did the author select it?
- Who was Alexander Mackenzie and why is he important here?
- What significance did rivers have to Thomas Jefferson?
- What does Ronda mean by “imperial geography”?
- We’ll be confronting western exceptionalism this semester. Do you find evidence in this chapter that the West stood apart from the rest of the United States?
(2) “Lewis and Clark in the Age(s) of Exploration”
- What thesis does Ronda argue here?
- Identify Columbus and Captain Cook and know how Ronda compare Lewis and Clark to them.
(3) “The ‘Core’ of Discovery”
- What does this chapter’s title mean and what thesis does Ronda argue in this chapter?
- According to Ronda, what ranked as the most important part of Jefferson’s instructions to the Corps of Discovery? Pay close attention—this returns.
- What did Lewis and Clark expect to find in the West?
- How did their experiences in the West compare to their expectations?
(4) “Maps and Storied Landscapes”
- What does this chapter title mean and what thesis does Ronda argue in this chapter?
- What do “geography of hope,” the Multnomah River, and “river of necessity” have in common?
- Pay especially close attention to maps 5-7.
(5) “Imagining the West: Through the Eyes of Lewis and Clark”
- Why did Ronda choose this chapter title and what thesis does he argue here?
- “The best history focuses not so much on an idea as on a question.” What did David Hackett Fischer mean by that and why does Ronda use this quotation?
- What did the East mean to the Corps? What did the West mean to the Corps? What made each region distinct? Pay special attention to these broad interpretive questions.
- How do the descriptions recorded by John Ordway and Patrick Gass on p. 57 compare to subsequent discussions of the West in this chapter?
- What role does Thomas Jefferson play in this intellectual history of the expedition? What role did the expedition play in the nation’s history and the region’s history?
- Notes on the State of Virginia
- Vision for the republic
(6) “A Moment in Time: The West—September, 1806”
- How does Ronda use September, 1806, to analyze the history and significance of the Corps of Discovery?
- Who was General James Wilkinson? Agent 13? How does Ronda use them?
- Who were these characters and how does Ronda use them?
- Pike, Melgares, Vianas, Freeman and Custis, McClellan, Fraser, Rezanov
- This chapter does a great job explaining why HIST 40733 qualifies as a Global Awareness class. Be prepared to discuss how and why.
(7) “Coboway’s Tale: A Story of Power and Places”
- Who was Coboway, what was his tale, and what does it say about Lewis and Clark and the West?
(8) “A Lewis and Clark Homecoming”
- Ronda’s characterization of the Corps of Discovery as a failure goes against the grain of much historical interpretation. What’s going on here?
- What does the history of the history of the Lewis and Clark expedition say about U.S. history? About the West?
- What did the expedition mean to Jefferson?
- To Lewis?
- To Clark?
- To the West?
- To the United States?