Research Paper on:
Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
how to spell "Sacagawea" for a history pop quiz and then quickly forgets about the whole thing. Whats lost in this little scenario is the drama of that era, the  hopes that were penned on that tremendous expedition and the grandeur of the continent that was first recorded by these two extraordinary men. This is precisely what historian Stephen Ambrose  captures in his book Undaunted Courage, a definitive study of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Ambrose focuses his narrative on the leader of the expedition, Captain Meriweather Lewis, who  served prior to receiving this mission as President Thomas Jeffersons personal secretary. Therefore, Ambrose begins his book by relating the details of Lewiss birth and early life. These  early chapters are fascinating because Ambrose succeeds in capturing the details and flavor of life during the infancy of the United States. For instance, the reader learns -in connection with  Lewiss home state--that there was a saying that Virginia planters were "foaled" not born, a reference to how deeply Virginians loved their horses (30). One also learns that Lewis,  as a hero, was far from perfect. As an Ensign, Lewis came very close to court marital for insulting a fellow officer while intoxicated (45). Ambrose also  paints a picture of what the country was like at the dawn of the nineteenth century. When Thomas Jefferson took office in 1801 the US population numbered only 5,308,483 (51).  Of these, two-thirds lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic coast and four roads crossed the Appalachian Mountains (51). As well as giving such physical details of the period,  Ambrose is also quite good at recreating the social and technological atmosphere. For example, he explains how the fastest movement that anyone knew-or felt that would ever be possible-was