A newer world

About this book

"John C. Fremont, nearly forgotten today, was one of the giants of nineteenth-century America. He led five expeditions into the American West in the 1840s and 1850s, covering a greater area than any other explorer."--BOOK JACKET. "Fremont's scout on three of his expeditions was Kit Carson. Fremont fancied himself a mountaineer, and he possessed great stamina and courage, but he lacked Carson's skills and knowledge."--BOOK JACKET. "A Newer World is the fascinating story of the Fremont-Carson expeditions and of two men, utterly unalike in so many ways, who became friends as well as fellow explorers. Fremont owed his life to Carson, who saved him on several occasions, while the legend of Kit Carson, the greatest mountain man of his day, grew out of Fremont's expedition reports."--BOOK JACKET. "Throughout the book, Roberts draws on little-known primary sources in telling the dramatic stories of these expeditions. He shows how Fremont saw himself as a historical figure, especially in his reports, while Carson - taciturn where Fremont was outspoken, modest where Fremont was boastful, and, significantly, illiterate - was oblivious to his own fame. Yet it was Carson who underwent an evolution from an Indian killer to an Indian advocate."--BOOK JACKET. "In addition to his archival research, Roberts traveled the routes of Fremont and Carson's expeditions to gain a firsthand knowledge of the territory they explored. In analyzing how Fremont and Carson advanced the Americanizing of the West, Roberts writes with a modern-day sensitivity to the Indians, for whom these expeditions were a tragedy."--BOOK JACKET.