Imperfect Union

 

Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Frémont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War- Steve Inskeep

Penguin Group

Release Date: January 14, 2020

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: John C. Frémont, one of the United States’s leading explorers of the nineteenth century, was relatively unknown in 1842, when he commanded the first of his expeditions to the uncharted West. But in only a few years, he was one of the most acclaimed people of the age – known as a wilderness explorer, bestselling writer, gallant army officer, and latter-day conquistador, who in 1846 began the United States’s takeover of California from Mexico. He was not even 40 years old when Americans began naming mountains and towns after him. He had perfect timing, exploring the West just as it captured the nation’s attention. But the most important factor in his fame may have been the person who made it all possible: his wife, Jessie Benton Frémont. 

Jessie, the daughter of a United States senator who was deeply involved in the West, provided her husband with entrée to the highest levels of government and media, and his career reached new heights only a few months after their elopement. During a time when women were allowed to make few choices for themselves, Jessie – who herself aspired to roles in exploration and politics – threw her skill and passion into promoting her husband. She worked to carefully edit and publicize his accounts of his travels, attracted talented young men to his circle, and lashed out at his enemies. She became her husband’s political adviser, as well as a power player in her own right. In 1856, the famous couple strategized as John became the first-ever presidential nominee of the newly established Republican Party. 

With rare detail and in consummate style, Steve Inskeep tells the story of a couple whose joint ambitions and talents intertwined with those of the nascent United States itself. Taking advantage of expanding news media, aided by an increasingly literate public, the two linked their names to the three great national movements of the time—westward settlement, women’s rights, and opposition to slavery. Together, John and Jessie Frémont took parts in events that defined the country and gave rise to a new, more global America. Theirs is a surprisingly modern tale of ambition and fame; they lived in a time of social and technological disruption and divisive politics that foreshadowed our own. In Imperfect Union, as Inskeep navigates these deeply transformative years through Jessie and John’s own union, he reveals how the Frémonts’ adventures amount to nothing less than a tour of the early American soul.

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Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Frémont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War is a fascinating, well-researched, and brilliantly written exploration of mid-nineteenth century America: its triumphs and failings, challenges and inventions, through the lens of John C. Frémont and his wife Jessie Benton Frémont. They lived during a time of great change and innovation and Jessie was quick to capitalize on all of it to, quite arguably, invent celebrity and public relations in ways that we would all recognize today.

By marrying Jessie, a powerful senator's daughter, John went from being a new and inexperienced Army officer to part of a powerful family with visions of manifest destiny and American Empire. Jessie's connections landed John the role of leader of an exploration party into the West. Her genius spun that exploration into John's becoming a national hero and celebrity; a bestselling author whose travel accounts often almost resembled reality; and the go-to explorer for several other westward mapmaking expeditions. Author Steve Inskeep unwinds Jessie's spin and uses the journals and letters of other members of Frémont's teams to get closer to the truth: that John was often inept, entirely self-focused, and frequently took unnecessary, potentially fatal, risks seemingly for the sake of it.  He seems to have considered orders from commanding officers to be mere suggestions, and the amount of time dumb luck seems to have saved his life (and his team) is mind-boggling. 

Through John's explorations, his forays into politics, his court martial for refusing to follow orders, and more, it was Jessie who stood between John and the world. Jessie who rallied support and gave advise, Jessie who deflected criticism and attacked critics. She was more than the power behind the throne: she was the brains behind the throne. She became as recognizable a celebrity as her husband at a time when women were starting movements towards fighting for the right to vote and have a voice in politics. 

Inskeep explores the changing politics and mindset of the time, the political and moral dilemmas America was facing regarding slavery and the "Indian question", arguments against immigrants and Catholics, with sharp clarity. He doesn't shy away from acknowledging when people like John were willing to compromise where today we would condemn; or where John was willing to perform or accept actions we would today find unacceptable.  Inskeep fully shows the negative to Frémont as well as the progressive.  But Imperfect Union is more than a biography of John and Jessie: it is an exploration of how America and American lives were changing. Through railroads and telegraphs people were being brought closer together, stories and ideas were traveling faster. This is the story of the politics of slavery in the North and the South decades before the first shot was fired to begin the Civil War.  Thanks to Jessie's political connections and John's celebrity status the two knew an incredible number of people who would become key players during the Civil War. 

For history lovers looking for a well-researched, well-written, highly accessible, and completely absorbing account of behind the scenes movements that would shape America and the American people to this very day, look no further than Imperfect Union.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review