Throne of Grace

A Mountain Man, an Epic Adventure, and the Bloody Conquest of the American West

By: Tom Clavin, Bob Drury

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

"As soon as listeners hear Johnny Heller's easy Western drawl, they'll know they're in for a story about the Old West."—AudioFile

The explosive true saga of the legendary adventurer Jedediah Smith and the Mountain Men who explored the American frontier, written by New York Times bestselling authors of Blood and Treasure Bob Drury and Tom Clavin.

It is the early 19th century, and the land recently purchased by President Thomas Jefferson stretches west for thousands of miles. Who inhabits this vast new garden of Eden? What strange beasts and natural formations can be found? Thus was the birth of Manifest Destiny and the resulting bloody battles with Indigenous tribes encountered by white explorers. Also in this volatile mix are the grizzled fur trappers and mountain men, waging war against the Native American tribes whose lands they traverse.

This is the setting of Throne of Grace, and the guide to this epic narrative is arguably America’s greatest yet most unsung pathfinder, Jedediah Smith. His explorations into the forested frontiers on both sides of the Rocky Mountains and all the way to the West Coast would become the stuff of legend. Thanks to painstaking research and riveting writing, the story of the making of modern America is told through the eyes of both the ordinary and memorable men and women, settlers and Indigenous, who witnessed it. But it's Smith who drives the narrative with his trailblazing path through the unexplored terrain of the American West.

Throne of Grace is a gripping yarn that drops the reader into the center of an underreported era and introduces one of the great explorers in American history.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

Critic reviews

Praise for Throne of Grace and Bob Drury and Tom Clavin:

"A lively account of the remarkable life of one of the men who led the U.S. into the vast West." —Kirkus (starred review) on Throne of Grace

"With its muscular prose and expert storytelling, The Last Hill deserves to stand beside Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers as one of the truly epic—and intimate—accounts of American heroism and sacrifice in World War II. " —Wall Street Journal

"In this exhaustive history ... Drury and Clavin pack the narrative with biographical details about the Rangers and skillfully toggle between battle scenes and big-picture analysis. WWII buffs will savor this deep dive." —Publishers Weekly on The Last Hill

“Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, challenge conventional wisdom about an American origin story and, in the process, weave a tale fit for the big screen.” —Washington Free Beacon on Blood and Treasure

“Bob Drury and Tom Clavin together have given us a half-dozen elegantly written narratives of exhilarating episodes in American history. [Blood and Treasure] may be the authors’ finest work to date. Redolent of time and place, a raw and rugged tale.” —Wall Street Journal

Fantastic

Well read and well written, a thorough history of the early west. It leaves you wanting more.

A collection of true stories about the Western Fur Trade.

I throughy enjoyed the book. From beginning to the end. The stories were spellbinding. A hard book to put down.

Amazing presentation of early U.S. exploration!

I liked the detail of the story! Evidence of deep research to tell the story accurately and well.

Well written, well voiced & fascinating

Throne of Grace
A Mountain Man, an Epic Adventure and the Bloody Conquest of the American West

By Bob Drury & Tom Clavin

Very interesting! The narrative recounts the life and times of mountain man Jedediah Smith and his contemporaries. The authors describe in detail the various encounters these trappers and adventurers were involved in. More than that, they explain very well how their exploits affected the development and future of the west.

I would definitely recommend.

The amount of research employed to accurately write this book

The very best accounts of the mountain men who explored the west after Lewis & Clark. Don’t miss this book!