Jefferson and the Gun-men: How the West Was Almost Lost

Contrary to popular opinion, the opening of the American frontier was not a simple land purchase; it was actually a hardscrabble fight. Even as Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out on their legendary journey to the Pacific Ocean, other forces were taking the measure of the land with far darker ambitions.

Aaron Burr, the charming and treacherous former vice president, determined that if he could not be master of his nation, he would instead become emperor of the next best thing: the Louisiana Territory. Slyly working with the powerful and ambitious commander of the U.S. Army, General James Wilkinson, Burr instigated a plot to seize not only Louisiana, but all of Mexico as well. Told from a time when the wildest plots and the most grandiose dreams thrived, as schemers and revolutionaries conspired to create a new country, Jefferson and the Gun-Men is the riveting tale of this unlikely story

M.R. Montgomery has been a journalist for thirty years and is the author of five previous books. He graduated from Stanford University and the University of Oregon with degrees in American history. A native of Montana, he has returned there often in search of the landscape and community that make up the last remnants of the days of bison and longhorns, cowboys, and schoolmarms.