THE EXPLORERS

An articulate, engaging study of the people of color and women who were in the front ranks of America’s explorers.

Adventurers and explorers of the American frontier are often thought of as being in the Daniel Boone mold: macho, usually white men conquering the wilderness with loaded rifles and gritted teeth. That is often not the case, writes Bellows, who teaches history at the New School. She provides biographies of 10 people who blazed their own trails but were later written out of history due to their race or gender. The book is divided into two parts, with the beginning of the 20th century as the rough dividing line. In the first section, Bellows recounts the experiences of Sacagawea, a Native American woman who acted as a crucial guide and interpreter for a government-funded expedition called the Corps of Discovery. The author also examines the wide-ranging travels of James Beckwourth, formerly enslaved in Virginia, and the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who was one of the first homesteaders in the Dakotas region. In the second section, Bellows looks at Americans who traveled out of the country, such as William Sheppard, the first Black missionary to go to Africa. Matthew Henson overturned the myth that Black people were inherently unsuitable for exploration by going to the North Pole, and Harriet Chalmers Adams was the first white woman to trek the Andes and map Incan sites. Finally, Bellows introduces Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. The author obviously has great affection and admiration for her subjects, and she knits together material from a wide range of primary and secondary sources. A diverse bunch, they were linked by a love of the far horizon, and the U.S. is better for it.

Bellows expands our historical understanding by recovering and retelling colorful, important stories.