“With thorough research and clear prose, Jared Orsi insightfully recovers the dramatic life and violent death of a military hero and western explorer of the early republic. In an unstable age of competing regions, Zebulon Pike pioneered a national style of manhood which flourished in, and gave shape to, the American West.” –Alan Taylor, author of The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832

“Shifting his lens between grand politics and the nitty-gritty of early American life, Jared Orsi gives us a wonderfully real Zebulon Pike, grounded in the material realities that determined personal and social choices in the evolving West. He presents us with Pike as a man of his times, caught by the promises of a nation that couldn’t yet deliver on them.” –Anne F. Hyde, author of Empires, Nations, and Families, A New History of the American West, 1800-1860

“Engaging and accessible style….VERDICT Highly recommended to academic and general readers of history and westward expansion biographies. Nathan Bender, Library Journal. Full review.

“Extremely well-researched….Orsi’s broader interpretation restores our understanding of Pike as one of America’s first Western heroes.” J. Stuart Rosebrook, True West Magazine. Full review.

“In this comprehensive biography of Pike, Jared Orsi…places the explorer against the background of a young country discovering itself. Pike’s ambition and high ideals were those of post-Revolutionary War America.” Denver Post. Full Review.

“A useful update of an underappreciated explorer.” Publisher’s Weekly. Full Review.