Pathfinder : John Charles Frémont and the course of American empire / Tom Chaffin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chaffin, Tom.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Frémont, John Charles, 1813-1890.

Frémont, John Charles.

Explorers--West (U.S.)--Biography.

Explorers.

Presidential candidates--United States--Biography.

Presidential candidates.

Generals--United States--Biography.

Generals.

Explorers--United States--Biography.

United States--Territorial expansion.

United States.

West (U.S.)--Discovery and exploration.

West (U.S.).

Discoveries in geography.

Territorial expansion.

West United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xxxiii, 559 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Edition:

Paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

Norman, Oklahoma : University of Oklahoma Press, 2014.

Summary:

"The career of John Charles Frémont (1813-90) ties together the full breadth of American expansionism from its eighteenth-century origins through its culmination in the Gilded Age. Tom Chaffin's biography demonstrates Frémont's vital importance to the history of American empire, and his role in shattering long-held myths about the ecology and habitability of the American West. As the most celebrated American explorer and mapper of his time, Frémont stood at the center of a vast federal project of western exploration and conquest. His expeditions between 1838 and 1854 captured the public's imagination, inspired Americans to accept their nation's destiny as a vast continental empire, and earned him his enduring sobriquet, the Pathfinder. But Frémont was more than an explorer. Chaffin's dramatic narrative includes Frémont's varied experiences as an entrepreneur, abolitionist, Civil War general, husband to the extraordinary Jessie Benton Frémont, two-time Republican presidential candidates, and Gilded Age aristocrat"--Back cover

Contents:

Part I: Apprenticeships, 1813-41

Part II: The First Expedition, Spring 1842-Fall 1842

Part III: The Second Expedition, Spring 1843-Winter 1845

Part IV: The Third Expedition, Summer 1845-Winter 1846

Part V: Reckonings, 1847-54

Part VI: For Liberty, Union, and Commerce, 1854-64

Part VII: The Light of Parting Day, 1865-87.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 529-544) and index.

ISBN:

9780806144740

0806144742

OCLC:

861209566