Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00I0A72QC | Format: PDF
Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival Description
At a time when the edge of American settlement barely reached beyond the Appalachian Mountains, two visionaries, President Thomas Jefferson and millionaire John Jacob Astor, foresaw that one day the Pacific would dominate world trade as much as the Atlantic did in their day. Just two years after the Lewis and Clark expedition concluded in 1806, Jefferson and Astor turned their sights westward once again. Thus began one of history's dramatic but largely forgotten turning points in the conquest of the North American continent.
Astoria is the harrowing tale of the quest to settle a Jamestown-like colony on the Pacific coast. Astor set out to establish a global trade network based at the mouth of the Columbia River in what is now Oregon, while Jefferson envisioned a separate democracy on the western coast that would spread eastward to meet the young United States.
Astor backed this ambitious enterprise with the vast fortune he'd made in the fur trade and in New York real estate since arriving in the United States as a near-penniless immigrant soon after the Revolutionary War. He dispatched two groups of men west: One by sea around the southern tip of South America and one by land over the Rockies.
Unfolding from 1810 to 1813, Astoria is a tale of high adventure and incredible hardship, drawing extensively on firsthand accounts of those who made the journey. Though 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.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 10 hours and 55 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Harper Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: March 4, 2014
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00I0A72QC
A riveting tale of part of our American history that many people would not know without the introduction of this true story beautifully written by Peter Stark. I've been to Astoria , a town that I always thought was smoldering with some long forgotten history..but at the same time a town that seemed like it never caught on! Now I know why. The history and the way this author wove it thru the book, bringing it alive, as if it happened yesterday, ways amazing. And, tremendous research with regard to the people involved , surprising and balanced tenure , not didactic, , insightful observations, what a wonderful early American legacy otherwise largely forgotten.
By Susan Gebhardt
Peter Stark deserves a great amount of praise for this remarkable book. Some of the finest literary work grows from the roots of intriguing events in human history that are not well known or remembered. Set at the beginning of the 1800s and based on a historical expedition which was championed by Thomas Jefferson and funded by John Jacob Astor, known as the Astor Expedition, it is the excellently researched and written story of two groups of explorers who set out to establish a new American colony and shipping port in the unexplored Pacific Northwest. The hardships and challenges these groups encountered along their way reads like an intense, action-adventure. As I was reading this book I couldn't help but imagine what a great script it would make for an award-winning movie. This lost chapter in America's formation will gather and hold the imagination of most readers. Definitely Five Stars.
By Robert Steven Thomas
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
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