Passage Through the Garden by John Logan Allen (1974 Hardcover in Dust Jacket)

Description: Passage Through the Garden; Lewis and Clark and the Image of the American Northwest by John Logan Allen (1974 Hardcover in Dust Jacket)• Author: John Logan Allen• Publisher: University of Illinois Press Urbana, IL U.S.A. 1974In Passage Through the Garden John Logan Allen did not intend to describe the intimate dialogue between man and wild, whites and Indians, or explorers and the explored. Passage is not the book for supplying information about native contact or the dynamics of Lewis and Clark's relationship; these are often popular topics in other books on the subject of Lewis and Clark. What this book does is explore how this expedition changed and enhanced the value of the West in America’s mind.Although the details of the truly extraordinary adventure that was the Corps of Discovery led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark have been rendered in other books, Allen tells a story of perception, geographical lore, and the unwavering hopes found in western speculations that arose from the expedition. Allen's intention was to explore "… how the experience of the expedition served as a modifier of earlier images and as a molder of subsequent American concepts about the nature of the Northwest." (xiv)The geographical lore that existed at the end of the eighteenth century exhibited a great romantic appeal for the West based on the importance and the promise of the theorized western passage. The western passage represented much more than a trade route to East Asia; it was the genesis of Pacific Northwest popular identity; prosperity and opportunity was to be found out west! This identity was further forged by Thomas Jefferson, who preached westward expansion to develop a progressive nation of land-improving agriculturalists.Allen argues that Lewis acquired the "Garden" mentality while serving as a secretary to Jefferson. The "Garden" mentality is the hope that the Northwest would be an Eden for settlers and a utopian landscape. Allen was adamant in portraying Lewis and Jefferson as fervent priests of this idea. The ideology is that of material progress can be made through working and improving the land and using the resources provided by God. This sounds like a very “Christian” ideal as well a guiding Jeffersonian principle. Allen's extensive research of the personal accounts of the Corp of Discovery explorers and the pre-expedition relationship between Jefferson and Lewis leads one to believe his argument. This mentality becomes one justification for westward settlement expansion and displacement of native people.Passage Through the Garden uniquely offers an outstanding record of geographical lore of the eighteenth century. Allen supplies not only first-hand records of outstanding geographical speculations but also a small atlas of period maps of the West (47 illustrations). Another strong point of the book is Allen's ability to tell a story of hope and dreams. The explorers set out for a western water passage and were positive along the way about the fertility of the land and the resources it would provide. It was not until the Corp of Discovery wintered at the newly-built Fort Clatsop that they abandoned all hopes of a passage and accepted the Northwest for what it truly was. Allen's work is truly memorable for its ingenuity of thought and its ability to weigh many (though not all) conflicting ideas against each other. Passage Through the Garden is suitable for students of Western expansion, American geography, Pacific Northwest discovery, and the Age of Exploration. xxv + 412pp,Hardcover has green cloth boards with gold lettering in a dark green shadowbox on the spine in a Good plus clipped Dust Jacket protected in a plastic cover. Jacket has no tears or creases, but scar from label pasted to spine. Ex-Library copy. Interior is tight and seldom handled, but ink-stamps, inscriptions, shelving in end-pages and on page-edges. Text is unmarked. Half of rear-facing end-page torn out.• Size: 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall, 437pp.• Condition: Good minus Hardcover in Good plus clipped Dust Jacket – Ex-Library. Dust Jacket in plastic protection.Copyright 1975. No edition/print-run info found. Manufactured in U.S.A. ISBN: 0-252-00397-7. LCCN: 74-14512. No MSR.

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