Review book reviews on the book By His own Hand The Mysterious Death of Meriweather Lewis - Essay Example

This review explains the book in terms of a courtroom setting in which Holmberg argues the case for suicide, Guice argues against it and Buckley gives instructions to the readers who are supposedly the jury. Morris then gives some details about the contribution of these three scholars in three different paragraphs. First it discusses Holmberg’s work on contemporaneous sources that support the case for suicide in addition to that Holmberg answers the questions raised by critics of the suicide theory.

In the next paragraph, Guice’s work on regarding the details of suicide theory as unreliable are discussed. Finally the review takes note of Buckley’s work on presenting recent studies on Lewis’ death. The review then adds to the information of readers that there is a document section comprising of nine documents related to the death of Meriwether Lewis at the end of this book. This document section basically lets the reader of the book decide what actually happened. At the end of this review, Morris recommends this book to everyone who is interested in the case of Meriwether Lewis’ death.

The next review is by Todd A. Herring from Lincoln University. This review starts with the instance of Meriwether Lewis’ death as well. It tells us that up till now this case has been a subject of surmise. The reviewer introduces the three contributors of this book namely John D. W. Guice, James J. Holmberg and Jay H. Buckley. The reviewer suggests that the analysis presented in this book leads the readers to the conclusion that Meriwether Lewis took his own life. However, in the previous review no such conclusion was drawn.

The review talks about Guice’s work that supports the possibility of murder but considers it implausible. The review then talks about the factors that contributed to Lewis’ suicide, which involve, severe alcoholism, financial difficulties, manic-depressive disorder, failure as a territorial governor and inability to find a wife. Herring makes reference to a recent controversial contention regarding Lewis’ death which according to the reviewer has not been mentioned in the book. This contention involves William Clark.

This review describes the book as a compilation of Guice’s assembly of scholars’ theories, Primary documents and Jay H. Buckley’s bibliography. In the end the reviewer does takes account of the fact that Guice’s work does leave some doubt in the minds of the readers. According to this review this volume is an excellent model for historians and has come closer to the apparent truth than any other previous investigation. The review by Dennis Lythgoe starts with the mysterious death of Meriwether Lewis and the details associated with it.

The review tells us that it has been assumed that Lewis took his own life but there were no eyewitnesses. Further the reviewer claims that even William Clark and Thomas Jefferson assumed that Lewis was not murdered but committed suicide. Then the review moves on to the book and one by one introduces the four scholars and gives a description of their work that has been presented in this book. According to this review, Clay Jenkinson outlines the facts and describes the problems known from the evidence, Holmberg argues for suicide, Guice argues for murder and Buckley concludes the case after assessing both types of arguments.

This non scholarly review also regards the book as a courtroom trial. Later in the review the reviewer highlights Buckley’