No one is better able to treat in a comprehensive way William Clark's public life than William Foley. Foley knows, and has skillfully used, the massive store of archival materials. He has written a balanced, solidly researched biography of a major American figure. The great strength of this biography is Foley's unparalleled command of the sources and his broad understanding of the West in the early Republic. William Clark shaped the early West and was shaped by it. - James P. Ronda ""Bill Foley's book on William Clark deserves a place alongside Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage on every scholar's bookshelf. It comprises a thorough and lively tour through the life of one of the most complex and vivid personalities ever produced in the United States."" - Bob Moore ""Bill Foley has written a compelling biography of William Clark. He expertly traces Clark's early life, and he separates Clark's leadership and achievements from Lewis's with clarity and insight."" - R. Douglas Hurt ""Meticulous and encyclopedic, Foley's biography will be a must purchase for Lewis and Clark collections."" - Booklist ""[Foley] did an outstanding job of wading through the available primary and secondary sources to pen one of the best works ever written about William Clark, the voyage that made him famous, and the sixty-four or so other years of Clark's life previously overlooked by most historians."" - South Dakota History ""Foley should be commended for this major contribution to the early history of the American West and specifically, to a better understanding of Captain William Clark's role in what I believe is the greatest American epic ever told."" - Nebraska History
