Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire

The most eloquent understanding and yet very candid biography of Frémont that has appeared to date - Howard R. Lamar Yale University. 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 Chaffins biography demonstrates Frémonts vital importance to the history of American empire and illuminates 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 the vast federal project of western exploration and conquest. His expeditions between 1838 and 1854 captured the publics imagination inspired Americans to accept their nations destiny as a vast continental empire and earned him his enduring sobriquet the Pathfinder.. But Frémont was more than an explorer. Chaffins dramatic narrative includes Frémonts varied experiences as an entrepreneur abolitionist Civil War general husband to the remarkable Jessie Benton Frémont two-time Republican presidential candidate and Gilded Age aristocrat.. This new paperback edition of Pathfinder features a new additional updated introduction by the author.