A Life Wild and Perilous

Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific

By: Robert M. Utley

Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson

If you have ever wondered what is was like to be an explorer in the unspoiled American West of the early 1800s, then this is the audiobook for you. Not only a groundbreaking work of American history by critically acclaimed author Robert M. Utley, A Life Wild and Perilous is also a dramatic story of innovation and survival. Here is your chance to live in the very heart of the American wilderness with legendary trappers and mountain men like Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Tom Fitzpatrick, and Jedediah Smith. You will also see how these men played a major role in pushing our national frontier from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, and fulfilling our nation’s ideal of Manifest Destiny. Breathtaking in scope, yet filled with the seemingly small decisions that changed the course of a nation, A Life Wild and Perilous is a compelling and fascinating piece of Americana. Travelogue buffs and historians alike will delight in Richard M. Davidson’s inspired telling of how the West was really won.

©1997 Robert M. Utley (P)1998 Recorded Books, LLC

Get It Right!

The narrator needs to learn how to pronounce the Oregon River Willamette. So irritating. Other than that, it’s a good listen.

A good work on often forgotten group of men.

Though well researched, the book tries to cover too many men of the period. The result is short changing the audience of many rich details of each figure. I'd liken it to a highlight reel of a great game.

Great perspective book

As Americans, we constantly fantasize about stories of the old west. This is the book that puts them together. Most people have heard the names of these frontier legends, but do not truly understand the reality of their perilous lives and their role in developing the western frontier in the first half of the 19th century. I would highly recommend this to anyone willing to learn about our development as a nation.

Great detail.

Well organized overview with great breadth covering the early west. The main characters in thier timeframes with details that brings the stories to life.

filling in the blanks

It was nice to find a book that shows the western lands were explored. My knowledge jumped from Lewis & Clark to the transcontinental railroad, with a smattering of knowledge of the Mormon exodus to the Great Salt lake and wagons on the Oregon Trail. Utleydescribes how the mountain men trapped the Rockies for beaver and started to piece together a (mostly mental) map of the country. When the beaver fur market shrunk, the mountain men helped federal explorers like Charles Fremont actually map the west. The explorers made cartographic measurements, but they relied on mountain men to lead them along feasible routes. In junior high, I read slim volumes on Jim Bridger and Jedediah Smith, but this book greatly expanded my knowledge of moubtain men.