How much do you know about the Mountain Men? I mean the men who in the early 1800's who ventured west from St. Louis (MO) to trap beavers for their pelts. Men such as Jim Bridger lauded by Johnny Horton (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SmZy_b-qlU) among others. But among this company of men, Jedediah Smith stands out. He stands out for his bravery, his fortitude, his knowledge and his honesty. Throne of Grace is his story told in the context of history.

Jedediah Smith arrived in St. Louis (MO) in 1822, having grown up along Lake Eire in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He joined General William Henry Ashley's fur trading expedition, and headed west up the Missouri River to explore. But that expedition encountered trouble partway up the river with Madan Indians. But the fighting he encountered did not deter Smith. Nor did the hardships of winter weather in the Rocky Mountains, the close encounters with hostile forces (Native Americans, Spanish, or British), or dangerous animals which included a very close encounter with a grizzly bear. Due to his bravery, common sense, and leadership, Jedediah Smith rose from being one of Ashley's men to a partner in charge in the Rocky Mountain area. H set up rendezvous points in the spring for the mountain men to gather and trade their pelts for supplies. He also led expeditions that opened up large sections of the West to settlers traveling to Oregon and California. He was know for mapping everything he encountered and kept multiple journals documenting his finds. He kept this up until he decided to retire. But he went on one last venture with his brothers leading a wagon train to Santa Fe when he had a fatal encounter with Comanches.

Bob Drury and Tom Clavin did a masterful job of documenting the life of Jedediah Smith in the context of his time using his journals and other sources to pain a picture of the West in 1820's in all its gore and glory. Take the time to read a tale of a true Western adventure!

Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read this title!

An enthralling historical novel that brings the complexities of 19th-century America to life. Clavin masterfully intertwines rich character development with a gripping narrative, exploring themes of ambition, power, and redemption. Clavin's meticulous attention to detail and engaging prose make the story both informative and entertaining.

This is the setting of Throne of Grace, and the guide to this epic narrative is arguably America’s greatest yet most unsung pathfinder, Jedediah Smith. His explorations into the forested frontiers on both sides of the Rocky Mountains and all the way to the West Coast would become the stuff of legend. Thanks to painstaking research and riveting writing, the story of the making of modern America is told through the eyes of both the ordinary and memorable men and women, settlers and Indigenous, who witnessed it. But it's Smith who drives the narrative with his trailblazing path through the unexplored terrain of the American West.

throne of Grace was such an interesting book! I felt like I was reading fiction sometimes, that's how exciting the writing made the story. Definitely quenched my thirst for westerns!

One of the perks of writing a glowing review of an author’s book is that sometimes they will ask you to read and review other books that they have written. I assume that is because they think that you already believe that the authors write in a style that you enjoy and that the subject matter may be something that interests you.

Such is the case here. Several years ago, I read and really enjoyed The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat. I don’t know if it was the authors that impressed me so much as the desperate battle of the First Division Marines against overwhelming odds in Korea. Whichever it was, though, it was a ripping yarn that I really enjoyed, and I said so in my review. I also read and reviewed Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier and in this instance I did comment on the authors’ ability to apply historical perspective to the stories read in one’s youth. I had read of Boone the trailbreaker and Indian fighter but had never realized that most of his actions were shaped by the events of the American Revolution until Clavin & Drury put the events into perspective.

Which brings us to my review of their newest book. Like Blood and Treasure, Throne of Grace tells the story of one of America’s early trailblazers, the explorer, trapper and mountain man, Jedediah Smith. Although the first few chapters are a bit dry, Smith soon has enough hair-raising adventures to keep the entire dime novel industry in silver for decades. That he survived one such encounter is amazing but that he did it again and again, and always kept going back for more just boggles the imagination.

The writing team of Clavin and Drury once again adds a good deal of historical perspective to the saga of the mountain men and even adds to the list of Smith’s accomplishments a new title, that of spy. During his travels, much of what is now the western United States was claimed by either England or Mexico. Both suspected, not without merit, that the United States had designs on these territories. During his trips to California and Oregon, Smith may have acted the appreciative guest, but as ”a keen and accurate observer, Smith had departed California with the layouts and defenses of the San Gabriel, San Diego, San Jose, Monterrey, and San Francisco missions and presidios committed to memory. He could now add the design and functions of the British Fort Vancouver to the store of knowledge he would dispatch east.”

If I have one beef with this book, and it is not a big one, it is the vocabulary that they use. My vocabulary is pretty good, and it is rarely that a book will send me to the dictionary to look up a word but this book had me doing it at least thirty times. It reminds me of what Hemingway once said about Faulkner, “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.” Examples of the words they used are:
Bullyragged instead of “scolded, browbeat or intimidated”.
Planter meaning an “underwater obstacle”.
Corvine to mean “beaklike”.
Juments instead of “livestock”.
Drove instead of “herd”.
Spinney instead of “grove”.
Amanuensis instead of “scribe” or “secretary”.
I don’t recall having this problem in previous books by these authors, so I suspect that the cause is that they are using words that they encountered in documents contemporary to Smith’s time. While I appreciate the opportunity to learn new words, an author’s main goal should be to make the subject matter easily understood. Reluctant as I am to say this, I agree with Hemingway here.

Bottom line: This is another excellent book by two historians who are building up a good number of excellent books about our country’s history. I highly recommend this book.


*Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy. Most, if not all, have been checked and are the same as appears in the final published edition. The review was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on its content.

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed for this book to be considered great or even memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star – The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.

I live in an area surrounded by places named for people in this book - so it was really fun reading about who they were and many of their explorations. The footnotes are entertaining too.

One thing I marveled at is how far everyone travelled on foot, horseback, rivers, etc. I've driven roads throughout the same country and I cannot imagine how they logged so many miles. And certainly, reading about Hugh Glass (of Revenant fame) was super interesting.

Next time I go to the Jedediah Smith wilderness, I'll be thinking about this book!

Once again, Tom Clavin and Bob Drury bring to life a part of our history that every American should know. They've done thousands of hours of research, conducting interviews and sifting through museum documents, newspaper archives, and nearly illegible handwritten journals. They synthesize the details into a smooth narrative, easy to read, yet riveting, horrifying, epic, and unforgettable. Men were made of tougher stuff in the early days of the frontier. It's humbling, shocking, and inspiring. How many of us today could walk hundreds of miles, eating only what we could catch (raw!), eluding assassins, and sleeping outdoors?

North America in 1822 was a blank slate, mostly unmapped. Who located and named all the mountain ranges, rivers, deserts, forests, lakes, and trails? Most American school kids learn about Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Jim Bridger, and the Lewis and Clark expedition. How many know the name Jedediah Smith?

Jed Smith, inspired by the journals of his boyhood heroes Lewis and Clark, blazed trails from Missouri to the Pacific coast. The myths and parables we know have overlooked some of the greatest explorers and adventurers, but Clavin and Drury fill in a lot of gaps in our education.

This is a stunning biography, richly detailed, full of marvels. All Drury and Clavin's history books should be required reading.

Throne of Grace
By Bob Drury and Tom Clavin

This book is a history lesson. It begins some years after the famous Lewis and Clark expedition, and tells the story of the opening of the American west from the Canadian border to the southern Spanish held territory.

The push by Europeans was initially sparked by the fur trade. The demand for beaver and other furs was high in Europe, and America seemingly had an endless supply. White men established forts and trading posts from which they traded for pelts with the indigenous peoples. Unfortunately, the white men did not foresee what they were bringing about when they started trading guns to the Indians. The Spaniards in the meantime had introduced horses to the Americas.

The combination of guns and horses transformed various Indian tribes from stationary, sometimes agrarian, societies to hunters able to wander much farther afield after prey – and upped the level of intertribal warfare. Thus, as white men put together more expeditions for exploration and trapping, they found themselves up against more mobile and well-armed adversaries.

Enter Jedediah Strong Smith. Smith was a young man who came to St. Louis seeking adventure. He went on to become a famous "mountain man" – hunter, trapper, explorer – who helped open up the west all the way to the Pacific. His exploits encouraged others to "go west". Unfortunately, Jedediah himself was killed at the age of 32 at the hands of Indians. His legacy survives him in American history.

If you are a history buff, this book has much to offer you.

When it comes to the American West, there are some names that stick out more than others. Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, and of course - Lewis and Clark. But Jedediah Smith seems to have been lost to history - until now.
The romantic view that many hold of the American West was anything but. It was lawless, violent, and full of struggles that many would never understand, unless they endured it. However, before the masses began heading toward better opportunities, there were men who cut through the wilderness, learning routes, breaking paths, and paving the way for mass movements.

This book was everything it promised, and so much more. History lovers will not be disappointed with this read. It almost reads like fiction in places, as it is hard to believe that one could endure so much, and yet, survive. But men like Jedediah Smith helped to open the west, and were the ones who truly were able to bring the romantic view in (albeit much later in time).

I will be adding a section into my American history course on this area, and talking about Jedidiah Smith from here on out. These unsung heroes deserve to have their story told.
Grab this book and discover an entirely new chapter of American history.

I've read a couple other books by Clavin and Drury and they always do an impressive amount of research that shows throughout the book. This one was no different, with plenty of source material, quotes from letters or the diary entries of Jed Smith or others to help try and give the reader some of the feel of what it was like being out in the West in the 1820s.

But I can't say this book really grabbed or kept my interest. It was slow, often a slog to get through sections, then when I'd get to a section that seemed interesting the authors apparently disagreed because they'd skim over it. There wasn't much in the way of a compelling narrative for the story overall that kept me going in this book.

Plenty of detail was given to a few of the tribes in the East and mid-West, very little to the Western tribes. How the Mountain Men like Smith lived day to day or why they felt compelled to do what they did (beyond the money to be found in beaver furs)? Hard to say. Details like that seemed left out of the book. I didn't feel like I connected with any of the men despite being told what they did. It was all more a remote approach to a subject than feeling like the authors were trying to connect me as a reader to the people involved. By the end they kept repeating how Smith and a few of the others were legends who opened the West for the Oregon Trail and westward expansion, lamenting that their names were lost to the history of the American West.

Maybe this was a book meant for people who are already very into the subject and just want to learn more about people or places they already know about. For someone with only a kind of passing interest, I can't say it kept me interested or gave me the details of the daily life and people to connect to the men I'd read a little about in connection to other topics. The authors did do a pretty good job of pointing out the hypocrisies of the US when it came to treatment of the tribes, and how badly they were being treated and would continue to be treated by the US, Mexico, and the Hudson Bay company.

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

Throne of Grace was a vivid and enthralling read. Seeing a part of US History through the experiences of an individual I had never met before has me sitting back and rethinking not only the stories I have been taught but asking who told me those stories. This is not a passing question but one that will stay with me. Calvin and Drury have a wonderfully readable style. Yes this book is filled with research and notes and documentation to support the the story of Jedediah Smith and his world, but all this was presented to me in a compelling and very readable style that kept me engaged and made the history come alive.

Throne of Grace: A Mountain Man, an Epic Adventure and the Bloody Conquest of the American West by Tom Clavin and Bob Drury shines light on a historical figure largely forgotten in the push West. The legendary adventurer Jedediah Smith and the Mountain Men explored the American frontier after the Lewis and Clark expedition of the Louisiana Purchase and the birth of Manifest Destiny. Stories of friendly deals and bloody battles with the indigenous tribes, the strange beasts and animals they encountered and the gorgeous landscapes before their eyes. From the Rocky Mountains to the western coast, Smith’s explorations became legendary although he fell into obscurity for seventy years after his death. Throne of Grace is a gripping narrative about an relatively underreported era in US history and brings to life one of the great American explorers.
Whenever I am given the opportunity to read a new historical book by Tom Clavin and Bob Drury, I jump at it. They give the full view of history and its events in its reality and with honesty. Throne of Grace sets out to provide an epic narrative of America’s greatest and yet relatively unknown pathfinder in Jedediah Smith. As their standard, Clavin and Drury provide a painstaking researched story with amazing details and insights into the historical figures and events. While it is Smith’s story that drives the main narrative, the story of settling west is told through the eyes of the ordinary and memorable men and women who witnessed it, both settlers and indigenous. If you love historical non-fiction, you cannot go wrong with Clavin and Drury’s books. I highly, highly recommend Throne of Grace.

Throne of Grace: A Mountain Man, an Epic Adventure and the Bloody Conquest of the American West is available in hardcover, eBook and audiobook

With THRONE OF GRACE, Tom Clavin and Bob Drury took me on an adventure to early 1800s West, so remote and unknown it wasn't even wild yet. Exploring the unknown land, the bands of explorers encountered animals, sights, and experiences unfathomable to those back in the comfortable, civilized East. That Jedediah Smith forded the rivers, pushed through impossible passages, and managed to live through meetings with friendly and hostile Indians and other beings is remarkable. I was gripped by imagining his and other explorers' journey and delighted to read such a thoughtful, descriptive story.

Nonfiction that is much more exciting than many fiction books I've read lately. History books are filled with the trials, tribulations, and horrors that the brave men and women crossing what would become western United States but so many of the stories are pared down to meet standards for universal readers. Not so THRONE OF GRACE. Tom Clavin and Bob Drury take readers on several of the most dangerous journeys in American history. Jedidiah Smith and the Mountain Men who would travel and fight along side him met every danger and every glory known to men of the time. The story is told with great detail and realistically accurate. I've read several of Clavin's westerns and loved them but he has set a very high bar for his next bar to exceed.

An advance reading copy (arc) of this book was given to me by NetGalley.com and the publisher in return for a fair review. Right off the bat, I will tell you that Tom Clavin (whether he writes alone or with a partner) is one of my favorite authors and he never disappoints. This book was very interesting as it takes places in the early 1800s when the westward movement was just beginning. Experienced trappers and mountain men like Jed Smith were already out there working, mapping, and dealing with the rugged terrain. It's hard to think about a country where there were no roads (let alone highways) and no easy way to get to places like Missouri, Colorado, and Utah--let alone California. These men also had to deal with Native Americans who resented the intrusion on their land, as well as Mexican officials who felt the same way (remember much of our western territory was owned by Mexico at the time). Authors Tom Clavin and Bob Drury did a great job brining this era to life through their vivid descriptions of people and places. My only complaint is that I found it hard to keep track of all of the mountain men depicted in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Westward movement as it really marked the very beginning. Can't wait to see what Tom Clavin comes up with next!

I enjoyed the book right from the beginning, but there were a few areas in the first third that really bored me. It might be simply a personal preference, but there were a few sections that I would have cut or at least pared back if I were the editor of this book. Some of the details of the first part of Jed Smith's life and journey with Major Ashley didn't feel necessary to me at all and really slowed things down. As a reference book, I can understand wanting to keep those sections in. As someone reading it just for pleasure, they felt unnecessary. Take from that what you will.

Things picked up a bit once we got to Hugh Glass and the bear attack. There still were sections that I didn't find necessary (did we really need all that background on every single Indian tribe Jed came within fifty miles of?) but at least interesting things were finally happening. I was most intrigued by the last 2/3 of the book, when Jed and friends finally got to California. The mission system, viewed by outsiders, is one of the most interesting things to me, and I enjoyed most of the book past about 60%. I would have liked to hear more about the Russians in America, especially their connection with the fur trade that brought Jed out west, however they merited only a few passing mentions. I really wish much of the first half of the book had been cut and more time had been spent on all the cool things Jed Smith did, instead of focusing on so many boring things, but I can't tell how much of this is just personal preference. I'm not saying that the book is terrible since so much of it feels like a prologue to all the thrilling things that happened in Jed Smith's life, because perhaps that was partly the intent of the author, to show how Jed came to be what he was, but I was a bit let down by what a small portion of the book was devoted to what I found truly engrossing about this mountain man (mainly his exploits after 1825). It made the whole thing feel much more like the kind of book one would only pick up to check a certain fact, rather than the kind that one (someone like me) reads just for fun. Perhaps that was 100% the intention of the authors and publishing team etc. I certainly don't know. But in my personal experience with this book, I found most of it difficult to read because it seemed like the magnifying glass was trained on all the wrong parts of Jed Smith's life. His super cool exploits got only passing mentions and all the uninteresting things he did before that were described in such detail that one's eyes glazed over almost immediately upon trying to read them. It felt like the purview was both too wide in its scope (in how no tiny mundane detail was excluded at times) but also too narrow (in how some of the most interesting things were relegated to a few hasty mentions in the final handful of chapters).

Some of the Indians in the first half of the book were described ad nauseum, yet the same treatment wasn't given to the Indians Jed meets the second half. For example, we learn an immense amount about the different Sioux tribes and the Arikara, what they eat, what they wear, where they live, how old their children were when they had to start carrying tipi skins, where they originally migrated from, which prehistoric Central American people they broke from thousands of years ago, etc. But we are given only the barest glance into the lives of the Miwok Indians even though Jed Smith was accused of conspiring with them against the Mexicans and was warned by them that the soldatos were coming for him, and that's how he escaped arrest. Who knows how different his life (and this book) might have been if he'd spent years rotting away in a Mexican prison? Yet apparently the author decided the Miwok weren't as interesting as the Pawnee or Blackfeet, so their history is excluded. Again, this is simply my opinion and may not affect another's enjoyment of the book.

All of these complaints aside, there were parts of the book that I absolutely loved. There were a handful of chapters that I enjoyed immensely. The footnotes in every chapter were almost always interesting and really added some flavor to an otherwise occasionally dull narrative. And there were certainly pockets of thought-provoking material all throughout. One of my favorite small sections was the part where we learn about the history of the horse in North America. I could have read several chapters on just how the Indians took the horses from the Spanish and modeled huge aspects of their culture around it after only a few years. Completely engrossing. I only wish the book had spent as much time describing the Spanish missions (and history of the mission system in general) as it did horses or a single Indian tribe's history, especially since Jed actually stayed at some of the missions while in California. A few real missed opportunities.

I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A detailed account of the opening of the West from the perspective of the Mountain Men. The book focuses on Jedediah Smith, but includes many other adventurers including Hugh Glass (the subject of the movie Revenant), Jim Bridger and others. We think of the Oregon Trail as the opening of the West. However, this book takes us back to the days when no one knew a route to safely get over the Rocky Mountains to California. Smith and his contemporaries were motivated by the quest for beaver pelts. They were under constant attack from wildlife (both Smith and Glass were mauled by bears and lived to tell about it). More threatening were the various tribes of native Americans, especially the Blackfeet who were as warlike in the northern Rockies as the Comanche were in the Southwest. If not for the lure of treasure in beaver pelts and the daring of men like Smith, the West would not have been opened for many years.
A well written book that is carefully researched and is very readable.
Thanks the the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is an amazing book about mountain men. Transportation is so easy now and we ca fly coast to coast in hours. There are not men like these today. They spent months traveling thousands of miles into unknown and often hostile territory. Some survived horrific near deaths and fought unbelievable owes to survive. This is a must read about the true history of our country

I found this account of the explorer and mountain man Jedediah Smith interesting and engaging.. What a fascinating life, and it's told in a way that illuminates the larger history of the West and the first white encounters there. I hadn't realized how widespread the beaver trade was, or that many of the western rivers were already trapped out by the 1820s. So I enjoyed this book but it was diminished a bit by comparison with Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage," which covered the Lewis & Clark expedition and was a masterpiece. They both discussed the early United States adventures in the West, and any book would be diminished in comparison with Ambrose.

DNF -- read two chapters and that just wasn't what I thought it would be. Very straight-informational more than a story.