Steve Inskeep: Imperfect Union, Jesse and John Fremont

In Deep with Angie Coiro: Interviews

Show #261 | Guest: Steve Inskeep | Show Summary: With an election year upon us, we are reminded that we have been through this before. The United States in the mid-1840s, for example, was a country in the middle of a major transformation, pushing its boundaries to extend from coast to coast to claim what many in that era asserted was America's Manifest Destiny.
A new book by NPR's Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep tells us this story through the tale of a political power couple who personified the ambition of that era. His book, Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Fremont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity and Helped Cause the Civil War, finds some similarities with today's political situation in the United States.
Tamim Ansary and Angie Coiro discuss the price and the prospect of this singularly connected moment in human history.