{"product_id":"9780062218308","title":"Astoria: Astor and Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Tale of Ambition and Survival on the Early American Frontier","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the tradition of \u003ci\u003eThe Lost City of Z\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSkeletons in the Zahara\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAstoria\u003c\/i\u003e is the thrilling, true-adventure tale of the 1810 Astor Expedition, an epic, now forgotten, three-year journey to forge an American fur-trading empire on the Pacific Coast. Peter Stark offers a harrowing saga of survival in which a band of explorers battled nature, starvation, and madness to establish the first American settlement in the Pacific Northwest and opened up what would become the Oregon trail, a pivotal moment in U.S. westward expansion that permanently altered the nation's landscape and its global standing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSix years after Lewis and Clark's journey to the Pacific Northwest began, two of the Eastern establishment's leading figures, John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson, turned their sights to founding a colony akin to Jamestown on the West Coast and transforming the nation into a Pacific trading power. Author and correspondent for \u003ci\u003eOutside\u003c\/i\u003e magazine Peter Stark recreates this pivotal moment in 19th-century American history for the first time for modern readers, drawing on original source material to tell the amazing true story of the Astor Expedition.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnfolding over the course of three years, from 1810 to 1813, \u003ci\u003eAstoria\u003c\/i\u003e is a tale of high adventure and incredible hardship on the American frontier, both in the wilderness and at sea. Of the more than one hundred-forty members of the two advance parties that reached the West Coast-one crossing the Rockies, the other rounding Cape Horn-nearly half perished by violence. Others went mad. Within one year, the expedition successfully established Fort Astoria, a trading post on the Columbia River. Though the colony would be short-lived, it opened provincial American eyes to the potential of the Western coast and its founders helped blaze the Oregon Trail.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on firsthand accounts, this epic survival story uncovers the brutal reality of a venture that changed America forever:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eTwo Epic Journeys:\u003c\/b\u003e One party's harrowing overland trek across the Rockies, and another's perilous sea voyage around Cape Horn-both converging on a single, dangerous prize.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eHigh-Stakes Global Trade:\u003c\/b\u003e The grand ambition of John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson to build a commercial empire that would rival the British and transform the United States into a Pacific power.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA Brutal Fight for Survival:\u003c\/b\u003e A gripping account of the battles against starvation, madness, and violence that claimed nearly half the expedition's members.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA Forgotten Chapter of History:\u003c\/b\u003e The forgotten saga of Fort Astoria, the first American settlement in the Pacific Northwest, and how its founders helped blaze what would become the Oregon Trail.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42369857585213,"sku":"9780062218308","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0603\/0838\/9949\/files\/9780062218308_p0.jpg?v=1771564743","url":"https:\/\/www.tatteredcover.mom\/products\/9780062218308","provider":"Tattered Cover","version":"1.0","type":"link"}