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Astoria: Astor and Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Tale of Ambition and Survival on the Early American Frontier, by Peter Stark
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Review
“Stark’s delightful narrative is proof that even though Astor didn’t leave the legacy he intended, his grand failure certainly deserves its own place in history.” (New York Times Book Review)“In Astoria, Peter Stark recounts the colony’s history as a fast-paced, enjoyable adventure tale.” (Wall Street Journal)“In his new book, Astoria ... Stark moves skillfully back and forth from one segment of the splintered expedition to another. He also raises a tantalizing question about the enterprise as a whole.” (Washington Post)“[Descriptive] passages . . . make Stark’s fine book truly distinctive. They raise Astoria above the level of a well-done historical adventure and help the reader get into a scene and understand the context or see relationships between participants and between then and now.” (Chicago Tribune)“Peter Stark’s Astoria is a vivid recreation of an era when the Pacific Northwest was a vast unexploited wilderness, with Astoria as its main American colony. . . . Stark is particularly strong in describing the wilderness and its effects on human psychology.” (Seattle Times)“Stark tells their grim story well . . . ‘Astoria’ is a well-written . . . account of John Jacob Astor’s attempt to found a commercial empire in the Pacific Northwest. It illuminates the cultural limits of the American approach to frontier expansion.” (Portland Oregonian)“In this harrowing historical tale of adventure and hardship, journalist Peter Stark re-creates a largely forgotten 19th-century expedition-during which one group crossed the Rockies and another sailed around Cape Horn-to establish America’s first colony on the Pacific Northwest coast.” (Parade Magazine)“A fast-paced, riveting account of exploration and settlement, suffering and survival, treachery and death. [Stark] recovers a remarkable piece of history: the story of America’s first colony on the continent’s West coast.” (Kirkus (Starred Review))“A page-turning tale of ambition, greed, politics, survival, and loss.” (Publishers Weekly)“New York businessman Astor, with support from President Jefferson, launched two expeditions in 1810 - overland and by ship ... and Stark recounts the perilous journeys.” (New York Post)
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From the Back Cover
In 1810, John Jacob Astor sent out two advance parties to settle the wild, unclaimed western coast of North America. More than half of his men died violent deaths. The others survived starvation, madness, and greed to shape the destiny of a continent. Unfolding from 1810 to 1813, Astoria is a tale of high adventure and incredible hardship drawing extensively on firsthand accounts of the men who made the journey. Though Astoria, the colony itself, would be short-lived, its founders opened provincial American eyes to the remarkable potential of the Western coast, discovered the route that became the Oregon Trail, and permanently altered the nation's landscape and global standing.
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Product details
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Ecco; Reprint edition (February 10, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062218301
ISBN-13: 978-0062218308
Product Dimensions:
5.3 x 0.9 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.5 out of 5 stars
913 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#24,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Astoria Expedition of 1810 to 1813 established the first permanent (non-Native) American settlement on the Pacific Coast. The expedition was financed by wealthy New Yorker John Jacob Astor, who dreamed of monopolizing the Western fur trade and raking in billions doing business with the Chinese. Astor planned a two-pronged attack on the West Coast, with separate parties traveling by land and sea to rendezvous at the mouth of the Columbia River. Following closely on the heels of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Astoria Expedition was every bit as epic an adventure as that earlier journey. Besides a lot of historical markers on the side of Western highways, however, the story of the Astorian pioneers, while once familiar to the American public, has since faded into relative obscurity compared to the legendary status of Lewis and Clark. With his 2014 book Astoria: Astor and Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire, author Peter Stark aims to resurrect this important story from American history and restore it to the prominence it deserves.In many ways, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, however arduous, was an example of a trip where almost everything went right. There was only one fatality, from illness. Conflict with the Indians was minimal. They never drifted terribly far off course. The Astoria Expedition, on the other hand, is an example where just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong, for both the sea-faring party and the cross-country trekkers. Internal conflict, an ambiguous chain of command, poor decision-making or a lack thereof, faulty wilderness survival skills, undiplomatic relations with the Native population, the outbreak of the War of 1812, and more all added up to a mission impossible with a high body count. Although Lewis and Clark’s crew suffered from hunger and privation, their troubles pale in comparison to the perils encountered by the Astorians. Stark does a good job of bringing these hardships to vivid reality, but he’s always a little too ready to shift focus back to Astor in his cozy Manhattan brownstone and praise the fur baron’s vision of global domination. Stark strikes a pretty good balance between happenings on the East and West coasts, but I would have preferred a little more of the microhistory of the travelers and their survival tales, and a little less of the relentless affirmation of Astor’s importance as a pioneer of globalization.Though several members of the Astorian land and sea parties kept diaries of the journey, there seems to be a lot less information available on this expedition than that of Lewis and Clark. Stark is forced to skip over periods of time or to resort to filling in blank spots with speculation. All historians do this to some extent, but one wishes there were a greater pool of primary source material from which to draw. Documentation was one of the primary missions of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, as it had specific scientific, geographic, and diplomatic mandates to fulfill. The Astoria Expedition, on the other hand, was largely a commercial venture, and its members were primarily focused not on exploration or diplomacy but simply on the getting there. In terms of an adventure story, the Astoria trip may be the grittier and more treacherous quest, but it lacks some of the epic grandeur and Enlightenment spirit of its predecessor.Stark’s book is an illuminating reinvestigation and compelling retelling of this important episode in America history. It’s also just a great wilderness adventure story. Anyone interested in Western expansion or the early exploration of the American continent will certainly find it an enjoyable read.
I did not just read this book. I devoured it. As review author Lawrence Gonzales states on the rear of the dust cover, "..gave me the sense all readers long for: that nothing exists but the riveting narrative unfolding in your head." This was exactly the way I felt reading this excellent book. I have explored the Columbia and Snake rivers including, the Columbia bar, Astoria, their confluence, Hanford Reach, Hells Canyon and east to South Pass (in astronomically greater comfort) and was exhilarated to realize I had trodden the very path of these explorers. I had never heard of this dual expedition before and I could not put it down. Peter Stark weaves a tale that is smooth yet detailed and covers relevant explanatory side paths . The fore and aft character descriptions flesh out the story wonderfully. Other reviewers have covered the book in detail so no need here, just read it. I don't know what I can read next that will surpass this book, whatever it is, it will anti-climatic..
Although I do enjoy historical books, my interests usually run to ancient history (usually European or Egyptian). That being said, I have also read some early American history (Lewis and Clark exploration,mainly) but I had never heard of this exploration and settlement driven by John Jacob Astor. That is why I chose to read this particular book. It was very interesting, sometimes scary, and really brought out the complete lack of communication that explorers had in that time period. Add that to all the problems and mishaps that occurred makes you wonder how anyone survived or took the time to make notes for future generations! The story, itself, ended rather abruptly but the notes that followed as well as what happened to all the people involved, added to finishing off the whole story.
Review While this book does not have quite the style and grace of a David McCullough, or the breathless wonder of a Stephen Ambrose, it is nevertheless a very readable interesting story of the beginnings of the "westward ho" expansion of what today is the United States. Of course, at the time (early 1800s) it was not the United States. The country was just established, and the war of 1812 would determine the outcome of the story told in this book.While I enjoyed enlarging my personal cache of American history, what I found most fascinating in this book is the way in which personality determined the outcome of aspects of the story. From Captain Thorn, war hero, whose dictatorial style turns out to be totally unsuited for the ship portion of the journey to the west coast, to Wilson Hunt whose leadership approach was based on consensus style worked well when the journey was going well, but failed when things got tough.The book is not sparing on brutal details. Exploration journeys were too frequently riddled with brutality and brute force. In other words, this is not a glossy history. But the fact that as humans we can be brutal, or the fact that Americans have been and can be ruthless--that should not surprise the reader or cause the reader to conclude that the book is not worth reading.
I can not begin to comprehend how much research went into compiling this book . I really appreciate how the author and editors put this little known history together. I have gone to Cape Disapointment and Astoria a few times but never heard anything about these early Astorians. All credit is given to the Louis and Clark expedition. I can only wonder what the American west coast would have been like if Astor had hired someone like Louis and Clark to head his hoped for empire . If a person is even a little interested in American history and early pioneering struggles they should read this book.
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