Imperfect Union

November 15, 2019
A biography of explorer John C. Frémont and his equally adventurous wife, Jessie. John C. Frémont (1813-1890), born out of wedlock to an aristocratic American mother and a lower-echelon French immigrant named Frémon, was a self-invented and self-inventing American archetype, unafraid of the hard work of building reputation and fortune. As a young military officer, he mounted surveying expeditions of the American West that opened the door to westward expansion--and, writes NPR Morning Edition host Inskeep (Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab, 2015, etc.), may even have been "secretly told to conquer California," picking a fight with Mexico in order to do so, even though Frémont had previously been opposed to a war that would enable "the extension of slavery." John and Jessie, daughter of a prominent senator, were creatures of endless ambition, and between them, they gained and lost staggering amounts of money while engaging in quixotic gambles to attain the presidency. Though a unionist at heart, Frémont wasn't shy about finding allies among the pro-slavery figures in office in the years leading up to Southern secession. He then rejoined the Army but was ineffective enough that Lincoln relieved him of any real responsibilities. Inskeep is a little more free-ranging in his view of Frémont than Tom Chaffin, whose 2002 study Pathfinder: John C. Frémont and the Course of American Empire is the last major study of the man. Inskeep extends the story to suggest that Jessie and John were the first modern celebrities--though Daniel Boone probably deserves that honor--and that John was instrumental in laying out the foundations for the Civil War, which had been cooking before his birth. Still, the book is highly readable, and the author draws renewed attention to these undeniably important historical personages, who are too often forgotten among the likes of Kit Carson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Horace Greeley. A lively introduction to a pair of flawed yet extraordinary figures in the nation's movement westward.

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December 1, 2019

Inskeep (host, NPR's Morning Edition; Jacksonland) begins this latest work with an 1845 incident intended to demonstrate the enormous fame of John Fremont (1813-90) at that time. After a local newspaper reported Fremont's arrival in St. Louis prior to his third expedition of the American West, he was assailed by an unruly mass of men who wished to join him. Inskeep proposes that the main reason behind Fremont's celebrity status was his wife Jessie Benton Fremont (1824-1902), the daughter of influential senator Thomas Hart Benton. Jessie Benton Fremont was politically ambitious; since holding office was not possible for women at the time, she put her efforts into supporting and promoting her husband, introducing him to influential people in government and media, and helping him write reports of his adventures. Later, she advised him politically when he became the first presidential candidate of the Republican Party in 1856. The story of the Fremonts is captured skillfully throughout this enjoyable work. VERDICT Well-written, entertaining, and strongly recommended for readers interested in American history.--Dave Pugl, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 13, 2020
NPR host Inskeep (Jacksonland) charts John Frémont’s rise from an impoverished, peripatetic childhood in the American South to become a celebrated Western explorer and the Republican Party’s first-ever presidential nominee in this scrupulously researched history. Frémont’s five mid-19th-century expeditions—including treks from the Great Plains to Oregon, and into California on the eve of the Mexican-American War—earned him nationwide acclaim as an embodiment of the country’s “manifest destiny,” according to Inskeep, who examines the era’s emerging political fissures over slavery and westward expansion with nuance. He reveals how Frémont’s wife, Jessie Benton Frémont, daughter of Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton, helped to write her husband’s reports on his explorations, “amplified his talent for self-promotion,” and guided his sometimes naive political instincts. Quoting a contemporary rival’s assessment that Jessie was “the better man of the two,” Inskeep discusses how her prominent role in Frémont’s 1856 presidential campaign provided inspiration for the women’s suffrage movement. This sweeping yet fine-grained account contextualizes the issues facing pre–Civil War America without losing sight of the interpersonal dynamics at the heart of the narrative. History buffs will savor Inskeep’s fluid, multifaceted approach to the subject. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency.

December 15, 2019
How does a bastard, poor boy, son of a French immigrant, dropped in the middle of 19th century America, grow up to be a celebrity explorer? Journalist and NPR host Inskeep (Jacksonland, 2015) tells the uniquely American story of soldier and surveyor John Fr�mont and his wife, Jessie?daughter of prominent U.S. senator and western expansionist Thomas Hart Benton?whose verve, political connections, and promotional skills helped vault John to national prominence. Inskeep follows the Fr�monts' upward journey, from John's early expeditions charting and profiting from pre-Gold Rush California to his 1856 presidential campaign as the first nominee of the newly founded Republican Party. He also credits the couple as pioneers of the modern path to celebrity, wherein savvy with the era's news media mattered as much as notable feats. That the Fr�monts' story also embodied pre-Civil War America's larger movements of women's rights, opposition to slavery, and the manifest destiny of westward settlement makes this an insightful and welcome biography of consequential Americans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)