Citizen Explorer

The Life of Zebulon Pike

By: Jared Orsi

Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin

It was November 1806. The explorers had gone without food for one day, then two. Their leader, not yet thirty, drove on, determined to ascend the great mountain. Waist deep in snow, he reluctantly turned back. But Zebulon Pike had not been defeated. His name remained on the unclimbed peak-and new adventures lay ahead of him and his republic.

In Citizen Explorer, historian Jared Orsi provides the first modern biography of this soldier and explorer, who rivaled contemporaries Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Born in 1779, Pike joined the army and served in frontier posts in the Ohio River valley before embarking on a series of astonishing expeditions. He sought the headwaters of the Mississippi and later the sources of the Arkansas and Red Rivers, which led him to Pike's Peak and capture by Spanish forces. Along the way, he met Aaron Burr and General James Wilkinson; Auguste and Pierre Couteau, patriarchs of St. Louis's most powerful fur-trading family, who sought to make themselves indispensable to Jefferson's administration; as well as British fur-traders, Native Americans, and officers of the Spanish empire, all of whom resisted the expansion of the United States.

Through Pike's life, Orsi examines how American nationalism thinned as it stretched west, from the Jeffersonian idealism on the Atlantic to a practical, materialist sensibility on the frontier. Surveying and gathering data, Pike sought to incorporate these distant territories into the republic, to overlay the west with the American map grid; yet he became increasingly dependent for survival on people who had no attachment to the nation he served. He eventually died in that service, in a victorious battle in the War of 1812.

Written from an environmental perspective, rich in cultural and political context, Citizen Explorer is a state-of-the-art biography of a remarkable man.

©2014 Oxford University Press (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Great book!

Reader is quite monotone. But book is quite good. Thoroughly researched and story flows well. Highly recommended!

Interesting book, somewhat entertaining

The story doesn't really get interesting until midway through. Then, the expedition retelling is exciting. It starts out a bit too academic for my taste, but I did enjoy learning more about this character of American history. It covers the subject matter well enough for a first time experience with Zebulon Pike, but I think those who know more about this man will find it somewhat ordinary. I am intrigued to learn more from a different approach to the man.

Good story, poor narration

Just finished Undaunted Courage before this book, and thought I’d try another story about westward exploration. While this book had good information, the details and narrative were not as rich as Undaunted Courage. I was also distracted by the flat tone of the narrator- I was consistently reminded of a bored surfer dude being asked to read aloud in his high school history class.

An excellent examination of a great explorer and his environment

Jared Orsi demonstrates a true and deep understanding of history. Not only of Pike’s life but of the historical context which created him.

While more academic than narrative. This book was thought provoking and superbly researched.

Awful narration

McLaughlin's narration is slow, stilted, and contains mispronounced place names. I did not enjoy this experience.