IMPERFECT UNION: How Jessie and John Fremont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War

Tells the story of a couple whose joint ambitions and talents intertwined with those of the nascent United States itself. Theirs is a surprisingly modern tale of ambition and fame; they lived in a time of social and technological disruption and divisive politics that foreshadowed our own. Inskeep reveals how the Fremonts' adventures amount to nothing less than a tour of the early American soul. Illus.