With customary depth and insight, David Bain illumines theUnited States"s nineteenth-century exploration of the Holy Land. Tolead the expedition, the navy tabbed William Francis Lynch, anofficer eager to enter the esteemed yet dangerous field ofVictorian exploration. Like many of his successful contemporaries,Lynch was well-read, and possessed an independent nature, but in aman who also preferred organization to chaos, and with a characterthat tended toward the obsessive. The expedition would force ajuxtaposition of the ancient world with the modern, as the world"snewest power attempted an exhaustive scientific study of the watersof the cradle of civilization.
Beyond its fascinating topic, Bitter Waters is full of broadallusions from the period that demonstrate Bain"s deepunderstanding of America, and serve to make the work appealing forgeneral scholars and lay readers. Heroically engaging unfamiliarterrain, hostile Bedouins, and ancient mysteries, Lynch and hisparty epitomize their nation"s spirit of Manifest Destiny in thedays before the Civil War.
DAVID HAWARD BAIN"s four previous books ofnonfiction include Empire Express which was a New YorkTimes bestseller and Sitting in Darkness. His articlesand essays have appeared in Smithsonian, AmericanHeritage, Kenyon Review, and Prairie Schooner. Heteaches at Middlebury College and lives in Middlebury, Vermont.
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