The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions

This upbeat survey from New School historian Bellows (American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination) profiles 10 American explorers, from the 1804 Lewis and Clark expedition’s guide, translator, and canoe pilot Sacagawea—a new mother and teenage war captive at the start of the journey—to astronaut Sally Ride, who in 1983 was the first American woman to go to space. While Bellows says she aims to move past a “limited definition of exploration which emphasizes the acquisition of land” and highlight the achievements of Black and Native explorers, she still makes room for fairly forgiving looks at white frontier figures who have received more scrutiny in recent years. For example, she characterizes homesteader Laura Ingalls Wilder’s family as “unwitting” participants in the theft of Native land, and when it comes to conservationist John Muir, she does not address how his influential ideas about “preservation” erased ways in which Native peoples were active caretakers of the land. Most captivating is a chapter on African American missionary William Sheppard, who publicized evidence of Belgium’s colonial genocide in the Congo, sparking international outrage and intervention. Some strikingly luminous moments shine through, like when Sacagawea refuses to be left behind for the final 20-mile trek to the Pacific because she wants to see whales. Empathetic yet lacking some up-to-date critical perspective, this is a mixed bag. (June)