First published 2026
Craig Fehrman reimagines the famous Lewis and Clark expedition by shifting focus from the celebrated captains to the overlooked participants who made their success possible. Moving between multiple perspectives, each chapter follows a different figure: John Ordway, the working-class soldier who battled grizzlies and hauled the expedition's heavy barge; Wolf Calf, a Blackfoot teenager who witnessed his friend's death in combat with Lewis; Black Buffalo, the Lakota leader whose diplomatic strategies have been misunderstood for generations; and Sacajawea and York, whose contributions extended far beyond popular mythology. Fehrman draws on newly discovered documents, including Clark's college notebook and previously unknown records of Jefferson's secret funding maneuvers. The author presents Lewis not as a flawless hero but as a man struggling with psychological troubles, while Clark emerges as an Enlightenment scholar rather than simply a poor speller. Through this expanded cast, Fehrman reveals how the expedition's triumph depended on collective effort, sacrifice, and the complex relationships between explorers, enslaved people, soldiers, and Native tribes across the American frontier.
Genres: biography, historical-fiction, 20th-century, american, adventure, 21st-century, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: expanded-cast, multiple-perspectives
Setting: American Frontier, Blackfoot, Lakota
Period: 19th Century
544 pages · Hardcover · Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster