Today Zebulon Pike is named after Pikes Peak, the second most visited mountain in the world after Japan's Fuji Mountain. Overlooking the city of Colorado Springs, where historian Gard Oursi knows.

Orsi drew this biography not only through geography but also because there was no modern interpretation of the life of this major explorer in American history. His life resulted in a great life in the early national period and on the American border.

Born during the Zebulon revolution, Pike came with the nation. Pike, trained as a soldier and stationed at various border posts, believed to have made a deal with his country: by sacrificing himself physically for the nation, would be rewarded with independence for freedom, prosperity and purification.

He made a name for himself in the early 19th century, when he was chosen to lead an expedition to find a source for the Mississippi River and purchase land from Indians for future military sites. He has proven himself to be an explorer who can carry out missions across borders and penetrate Spanish territory, including Santa Fe, the Rocky Mountains and Louisiana.

Along the way he was suspected of mischievous plots against the Spanish and the time taken. (This draws particular attention to the loose association that the Americans were practicing with the new nation, while the other went.) However, he advanced within the army and served during the War of 1812, and was dying during an expedition he led against York (now Toronto).

Orsi aims to interpret Pike's life through multiple lenses. As a nationalist, his life reflects the tensions of the young republic.

Through his character, he can convey the growing interest of Americans in the West, which Pike is best known for in his travel novels. Pike sees it from an environmental point of view, analyzing his physical encounters with landscapes.

This autobiography, which will be the only one on Pike, should have readers similar to Donald Worcester's River Side West, writings about Lewis and Clark's journey, and books on interaction between Americans and indigenous peoples on the border. ..