Imperfect Union: How Jessie And John Frèmont Mapped The West, Invented Celebrity, And Helped Cause The Civil War, by Steve Inskeep

Given the author’s radical critical attitude of the celebrity culture (which was not invented by or for the Fremonts) and his hostility towards the hype that made John a major political figure first as a champion of American expansion as a member of America’s topographical engineers, then as a filibuster partly responsible for America’s conquest of California during the Mexican-American War, and then his sloppy financial dealings, it is unfortunate that the author himself shows much of the same sloppiness and shallowness as his subject. If Fremont was no Lincoln–even if his fame did allow him to find a great deal of things named after him–neither is the author a particularly skilled historian. One might tell the NPR host to keep his day job, but it is an open question as to whether the NPR deserves to exist at all, given its partisanship and parasitic existence as a recipient of public money. Though there is certainly information of interest here, the book is improperly framed and the author glosses over a lot of material in order to create a work of midbrow history that seeks to allow contemporary readers to see something of the Trump-like appeal of an empty suit from a previous period of national crisis.

This book is about 360 pages and is divided into four parts. The book begins with an introduction. The first part of the book discusses Nation Building, with a discussion of Fremont’s early life and the beginnings of his career and his first couple of exploration missions, which helped make his reputation and encourage the settlement of the Oregon country (1-4). The second part of the book then discusses Fremont’s role in Manifest Destiny (II), with chapters discussing Fremont’s missions at the beginning of the Mexican-American War and his role in opening up California (5-8). The third part of the book then explores Fremont’s post-1846 life in Mexico, including his role as one of California’s first Senators and his successful (and possibly corrupt) real estate dealings (9-12). The fourth and final part of the book then discusses Fremont’s role as the first standard-bearer for the young Republican party, where his religious identity and lack of stature as a leader attracted some negative commentary and he was unable to fully unify the anti-slavery voters of the North, thus leading to Buchanan’s victory (13-16). The book then ends with an epilogue, sources and acknowledgements, notes, a bibliography, credits, and index. Throughout the book the author weaves the stories of John and Jessie Benton, as well as Jessie Benton’s father, the noted Missouri Jackson Democrat, and the people in Fremont’s circle, including such diverse people as Kit Carson and more obscure people, including servants.

As might well be imagined, the author’s own perspective greatly informs this work. Jessie Benton is given a lot of praise here, and the author seeks to frame John Fremont as being a vulnerable man impossible to pin down and not particularly prone to be under a great deal of self-discipline in his life and dealings. At a few cases, the author unnecessarily drags the 2016 election and its aftermath into a discussion about the crisis of the 1850s, where internal disagreements about politics and an intense partisanship in media in some ways mirrored our own corrupt contemporary ways, especially in his talk about the appeals of Nativism. Rather than showing any degree of sympathy with concerns about drastic cultural change and concerns about economic well-being in times of social crisis, the author’s view is simply that those who were concerned about immigrants were simply evil. One need not label others as evil to show humanity to outsiders who themselves seek a better life in a world that was in general in a time of political crisis during the mid-1800’s, an age that featured violent civil war in China, increasing European imperialism, and the violent unifications of Germany and Italy, among other problems. The author, sadly, does not comment much on this broader context. Of course, this book is spread far too thin by its broad scope and its failure to give detail on John Fremont as a family man or Fremont’s troubled time during the Civil War or his period of general obscurity and reduced circumstances afterward.