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A review by nina_rod
Astoria: Astor and Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Tale of Ambition and Survival on the Early American Frontier by Peter Stark
4.0
I decided to read this book after visiting Astoria and finding about about its fascinating sea and industrial history. On our visit, it was sunny and glorious. I thought I should definitely move there! The locals told me the weather was not usually like that. I thought I would read about the history of the town.
However this story was more about its very early beginnings of Astoria not necessarily about the town. It was about John Astor’s grand idea to set up this west coast empire that never came to his vision... though others have taken it. Had he succeed, we may have called the whole place Astoria and not just the town. The US might have had the entire west coast... and not had to share it with Canada.
This story was about the arduous sea voyage and fatal land voyage to set up the empire. Its bad decisions, communication misses, Indian attacks, attacks on Indians, revenge and war with England that hampered the grand vision. So this story was not what I expected, but was fascinating. I found myself mourning the voyagers bad luck and my jaw dropping at the amazing things that happened. I googled to find out more. Just googling about the fate of the ship the Tonquin is worth the google.
However this story was more about its very early beginnings of Astoria not necessarily about the town. It was about John Astor’s grand idea to set up this west coast empire that never came to his vision... though others have taken it. Had he succeed, we may have called the whole place Astoria and not just the town. The US might have had the entire west coast... and not had to share it with Canada.
This story was about the arduous sea voyage and fatal land voyage to set up the empire. Its bad decisions, communication misses, Indian attacks, attacks on Indians, revenge and war with England that hampered the grand vision. So this story was not what I expected, but was fascinating. I found myself mourning the voyagers bad luck and my jaw dropping at the amazing things that happened. I googled to find out more. Just googling about the fate of the ship the Tonquin is worth the google.