The sections of the book covering the Lewis and Clark Expedition are as well written as anything Ambrose has done. I felt like I was there with the "Corps of Discovery", as they were named, seeing the incredible plains and mountains of the unexplored American West for the first time.

I am familiar with some of the country and have actually stood at Three Forks in Montana where the Missouri River is first formed and I can only imagine what it must have felt like and looked like for the explorers.

The book is, of course, not only a biography of Meriwether Lewis but also a view into the thinking and attitudes of Thomas Jefferson, in particular, and other luminaries of the time vis a vis the West, American Indians, the future of the U.S. and its eventual spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

The story of Lewis' life is a glorious and sad chronicle as we share both his triumphs and his disappointments. The last chapter of the book, titled "Aftermath" is as beautifully written a eulogy as I have ever read. Ambrose must have taken Meriwether Lewis into his heart and shared that love with the rest of us. As he pointed out in his Introduction, he and his family fell in love with the country Lewis and Clark explored which helped provide him with the motivation to write Lewis' story. This fascination and familiarity with the geography of the plains and the mountains is obvious as Ambrose describes the land the explorers traveled through.

Some may find the detail Ambrose provides boring or unnecessary but I found that it enhanced my sense of immediacy and identification with people who had endured what they went through 200 years ago.

"Undaunted Courage" is a great bit of historiography and a great bit of writing also.