Beyond the Stony Mountains: Following in the Footsteps of Lewis and Clark - Tapa dura

"Entertaining, thought-provoking, and well worth it. The conservation message is strong and urgent. Enthusiastically recommended."--Library Journal (starred review)"With the rush to publish before the Lewis and Clark expedition bicentennial ends in 2006, we've had an avalanche of works to overload our bookshelves. Now comes a work that deserves a space on our shelves and one that will earn a place as a premier study of the expedition. While specialized books on nearly every aspect of the expedition exist, we don't have nearly enough of such rich, thoughtful, well-written, 'big picture' books. Building on a decade of thought, research, and writing, Daniel Botkin brings his scientific insights together with his skill as a naturalist writer to span the centuries and apply modern ecological thinking to the work of these exemplary nineteenth-century explorer/naturalists. It's a remarkable feat. Botkin demonstrates once more that expedition writings offer endless opportunities for new discoveries." --Gary E. Moulton, Editor, Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, University of Nebraska-Lincoln "Entertaining, thought-provoking, and well worth it. The conservation message is strong and urgent. Enthusiastically recommended."--Library Journal (starred review) "With the rush to publish before the Lewis and Clark expedition bicentennial ends in 2006, we've had an avalanche of works to overload our bookshelves. Now comes a work that deserves a space on our shelves and one that will earn a place as a premier study of the expedition. While specialized books on nearly every aspect of the expedition exist, we don't have nearly enough of such rich, thoughtful, well-written, 'big picture' books. Building on a decade of thought, research, and writing, Daniel Botkin brings his scientific insights together with his skill as a naturalist writer to span the centuries and apply modern ecological thinking to the work of these exemplary nineteenth-century explorer/naturalists. It's a remarkable feat. Botkin demonstrates once more that expedition writings offer endless opportunities for new discoveries." --Gary E. Moulton, Editor, Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, University of Nebraska-Lincoln "Entertaining, thought-provoking, and well worth it. The conservation message is strong and urgent. Enthusiastically recommended."--Library Journal (starred review) "With the rush to publish before the Lewis and Clark expedition bicentennial ends in 2006, we've had an avalanche of works to overload our bookshelves. Now comes a work that deserves a space on our shelves and one that will earn a place as a premier study of the expedition. While specialized books on nearly every aspect of the expedition exist, we don't have nearly enough of such rich, thoughtful, well-written, 'big picture' books. Building on a decade of thought, research, and writing, Daniel Botkin brings his scientific insights together with his skill as a naturalist writer to span the centuries and apply modern ecological thinking to the work of these exemplary nineteenth-century explorer/naturalists. It's a remarkable feat. Botkin demonstrates once more that expedition writings offer endless opportunities for new discoveries." --Gary E. Moulton, Editor, Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, University of Nebraska-Lincoln "Entertaining, thought-provoking, and well worth it. The conservation message is strong and urgent. Enthusiastically recommended."--Library Journal (starred review)"With the rush to publish before the Lewis and Clark expedition bicentennial ends in 2006, we've had an avalanche of works to overload our bookshelves. Now comes a work that deserves a space on our shelves and one that will earn a place as a premier study of the expedition. While specialized bookson nearly every aspect of the expedition exist, we don't have nearly enough of such rich, thoughtful, well-written, 'big picture' books. Building on a decade of thought, research, and writing, Daniel Botkin brings his scientific insights together with his skill as a naturalist writer to span thecenturies and apply modern ecological thinking to the work of these exemplary nineteenth-century explorer/naturalists. It's a remarkable feat. Botkin demonstrates once more that expedition writings offer endless opportunities for new discoveries." --Gary E. Moulton, Editor, Journals of the Lewisand Clark Expedition, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Dan Botkin is one of the leading ecologists of his generation. This book would follow the course of the Lewis and Clark expedition, ecoregion by ecoregion, showing the land and environment that this expedition explored, and how the personal qualities and preconceptions that they brought to the expedition influences what they perceived in the explorations. The encounter of two highly insightful and intelligent men of European-based culture, with nature and the indigenous human cultures of the American West, was conditioned and influenced by earlier conceptions about the harmony or balance of nature, that they needed to revise and correct in order to succeed in their expedition. Prior to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, it was thought, for instance, that the Rocky Mountains could be no higher than about 6000 feet, because there must be a rough continental balance with the Eastern, Appalachian range. The Expedition would not have been launched when it was, with the resources devoted to it, if it were realized that the Rockies were in fact twice as high as thought.