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Welcome Remarks for Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America’s First Frontier

Greetings from the National Archives’ flagship building in Washington, DC, which sits on the ancestral lands of the Nacotchtank peoples. I’m David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to today’s virtual author lecture with Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, co-authors of Blood and Treasure.

Before we begin, though, I’d like to tell you about two upcoming programs you can view on our YouTube channel.

On Thursday, May 13, at noon, historian Jonathan Zimmerman and Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonist Signe Wilkinson will present their new book, Free Speech. This brief but bracing book tells the story of free speech in America and makes the case for why we should care about it today.

And on Tuesday, May 18, at 7 p.m., we will host a panel discussion titled “Celebrating the Woman Suffrage Centennial.” Our panelists will discuss the centennial of the 19th Amendment in 2020, the events that were planned across the country, and what we learned during that turbulent year.

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In Blood and Treasure, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin describe the inevitable conflict along the trans-Appalachian frontier between westward-moving European colonists and the Native Americans who already lived there. Using the story of Daniel Boone in the decades leading up to and through the Revolutionary War, Drury and Clavin paint a vivid picture of a bloody struggle that changed the course of the newly emerging nation.

In a recent book review in the Wall Street Journal, Peter Cozzens called Blood and Treasure “the authors’ finest work to date” and said Drury and Clavin “excel not only in superb portrayals of Boone and his white frontier contemporaries, but also in the evocation of the Eastern Woodland Indians, their way of life and their heart-wrenching efforts to protect their land from white encroachment.”

Blood and Treasure,” Cozzens says, “offers an engrossing narrative of the Revolutionary War on the trans-Appalachian frontier.”

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Bob Drury, a New York Times bestselling author and military correspondent, is the author, coauthor, or editor of nine books. He has reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and Darfur and has written for numerous publications, including the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Men’s Journal, and GQ. Bob has been nominated for three National Magazine Awards and a Pulitzer Prize.

Tom Clavin was a reporter for the New York Times, served as managing editor at the East Hampton Star, was the editor-in-chief of The Independent group of weekly newspapers, and was a columnist and contributing writer at the Express News Group on Long Island. He has written for several prominent magazines, including Smithsonian, Parade, Reader’s Digest, and Golf. He has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, and the National Newspaper Association.

Tom and Bob have co-authored several books, and four of them—Dodge City, The Heart of Everything That Is, Halsey’s Typhoon, and The Last Stand of Fox Company—have been New York Times bestsellers.

Now let’s hear from Bob Drury and Tom Clavin. Thank you for joining us today.

 

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