The Wardian Case: How a Simple Box Moved Plants and Changed the World

Abstract

West that would help “Jefferson’s vision of an empire for liberty move toward becoming a reality” (p. 129). Jared Orsi’s “An Empire and Ecology of Liberty” details how the average American in Pike’s time viewed the land and its usage in different terms than the indigenous inhabitants. Using Pike’s relations with the Pawnee as a model, Orsi notes how Pike was a harbinger of new forms of resource use, trade patterns, and property ownership: “whoever imprinted their culture on the land would leave an enduring legacy” (p. 157). Leo E. Olivia’s essay compares and contrasts the expedition of Pike and Spanish troops led by Lt. Facundo Melgares from Santa Fe. Melgares and Pike became friendly, and Melgares’s information would prove instrumental to Pike’s reconnaissance of Spanish outposts, his description of the land, and even the eventual creation of the Santa Fe Trail. Grandly, Oliva makes Melgares and Pike foundational in the “annexation of Texas in 1845 and the war with Mexico, 1846–48, which brought the entire Southwest” into the U.S. (p. 181). In a long essay, William Foley dissects the important connections between Pike and the shady James A. Wilkinson. Wilkinson, general, conspirator, Burr associate, and spy in Spanish employ, has clouded Pike’s reputation since the early 1800s, though Foley and others ultimately absolve Pike of any of Wilkinson’s skullduggeries. This volume offers much-needed reevaluation of Zebulon Pike and his western exploring expeditions in the history of the American West. The overall implication of the essays is to suggest that Pike’s importance was on par with, or in some aspects, even surpassing that of the much-famed exploration of Lewis and Clark. Pike was the herald of what would later be called “Manifest Destiny,” new ecological and economic utilization of the land, and a confrontation of peoples and nations. The importance of geography, cartography, and scientific exploration also played a role in these events, and Pike deserves greater recognition for his contributions, however “lost” or compromised he might be by the intrigues of others. This is a comparatively short book, easy to read, with a wealth of material in notes, maps, appendices, and a select bibliography. It is a publication that any person interested in the exploration of the North American mainland should have on the shelf.