The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West (Thorndike Press Large Print Popular and Narrative Nonfiction)

The advertising and promotion of this book by Amazon, and in the subtitle on the book jacket, suggestes that it is a history of the settlement of the territories created by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. It is anything but. While the first 31 pages do contain a most welcome presentation of the creation of the Ordinance, the balance of the volume is devoted primarily to the personal histories of the first settlers of the North bank of the Ohio River in the vicinity of Cincinatti. Of the larger Northwest, of the peoples of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan there is not a word, not even in the index. As an admirer of the work of David McCullogh, and the possesor of all of his previous volumes, I cannot but believe that the fault lies not with the author, but with the publisher and promoters of the book, including Amazon, for mis-representing this work Caveat emptor.

David McCullough is a wonderful writer - usually. This book is half notes and acknowledgements. The book is well written as usual, but the content is lacking. The settlers were portrayed as hero's, and little attention is given to the Native Americans who were displaced by Americans who treated them shamefully. Mr. McCullough is capable of much better.

Big fan of McCullough but found this book to be a let down. Instead of being called “The Pioneers,” it should be called a “A History of Marietta, Ohio.” Sound boring? It is. Beyond that, it presents a very limited overview of the history of the NW Territory and instead focuses on two generations of the Cutler family, which even after finishing the book I don’t really care about. Maybe we if you have Ohio roots, you would be enthused. Seems to me that McCullough simply got his hands on original source material from the Cutler family and decided to throw a book together about it that lazily intersperses in a very general way important historical events from the NW Territory. Solid miss this time.

This is a thorough and factual recounting of pioneer settlers in the Northwest Territory, specifically Ohio, told as only David McCullough can. Human interest stories are foremost, engagingly narrated.

I am a fan of David McCullough's books and this one captivated me at once, as I had expected. Settling down with this beautiful book including photos, I read it straight through, marveling at those courageous families who crossed the mountains into Ohio and settled the town of Marietta out of a wilderness. The descriptions of forests, the Ohio River, Indians, wild animals and the brave men and women who persevered from 1787 to 1863 making the new state of Ohio into a free state, with schools and colleges, inventions and industry, by sheer hard work and determination, kept me turning the pages, just as the author planned! The new government and political figures; Washington, Jefferson, Adams and others were represented in surprising ways thanks to the author's research. I was amazed, sad, joyful, shocked - a whole range of emotions as I kept reading and this is what makes for a fascinating book about real people and the beginning of westward expansion in America.

There is a lot to appreciate in this history of American expansion into the Northwest Territories. Firstly, possibly even more amazing than the expansion into the lands acquired through the Louisiana Purchase, the virgin lands, as described by the original pioneers of this region are best appreciated if one imagines what might transpire if, or when, we travel to some distant planet.What sets this history apart from most others, though, is the writer's writing style. It is a bit more meandering than the typical straight-talk style. I believe that helped me to better imagine that I was with Putnam and the others in that first party. The forests sound so amazing, as well as the brief detention of one among the Shawnee.BLUSH FACTOR: No worries here. Feel free to read aloud to any who will listen. Indeed, I hope many educators will select this as a read-aloud book for their students.EXCERPT:Sorry, the publisher posted an excerpt in the description that provides a first-rate sample for readers to peruse before purchasing.BOTTOM LINEOne of the best, most-fulfilling historical texts that I have ever read.Five stars out of five.

Whilst this is a story which focuses on five prime actors, the breath of what David McCullough describes is staggering. To put some perspective on the narrative, the American War of Independence, also known as the American Revolutionary War, which spanned the period from 19 April 1775, until the Treaty of Paris concluded the war on 3 September 1783, with the defeat of Britain and loss of its thirteen eastern seaboard colonies, together with what was known as the Northwest Territory, which is to say the area west of Pennsylvania, east of the Mississippi River, north of the Ohio River to the border with contemporary British Canada. It was a crushing blow for Britain, which some historians consider to be the end of the first British Empire. The Northwest Territory was a vast, lush wilderness, largely uninhabited land mass of some 260,000 square miles (670,000 square kilometres), home to approximately 45,000 indigenous Indian tribes and around 4,000 traders, the latter a mix of Canadian and British subjects. In the fullness of time this new land mass, almost one-third the total area of America would become the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. However, before all of that could take place, it would be the actions of a Massachusetts minister, Reverend Manasseh Cutler, co-founder of the Ohio Company of Associates who would, with Rufus Putnam, Ephraim Cutler (Manasseh oldest son), Joseph Barker House and Samuel Prescott Hildreth encourage a small group of intrepid pioneers to fulfil the intentions of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 by making the long and perilous journey up the Ohio River to found the first settlement on the river, which they named Marietta. The story David McCullough so skilfully tells is one of adventure, daring, sadness and injustice, certainly from the standpoint of the indigenous Americans. Notwithstanding the moral issues - and they are significant - this is a narrative that adds new understanding of how Americans populated the Northwest Territory, how the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 banned slavery within the territory, advanced public school education and perhaps above all else was a difficult but nonetheless great endeavour. This is a book which can engender a feeling of being part of this movement west. This is a highly recommended read.

He is the best author of all time. Enough said!!!!

This appears to have been written by several different people, for it seriously lacks the traditional David McCullough flow. It is poorly edited as well. A shame after some landmark classics of earlier days.

This is another excellent book by the author. It was very well-written and very engaging. I have read a lot of books on this era of American history, but I felt I learnt a lot from this book.

I ordered three of these books, but each one had pages that were unfinished, cut to different sizes, and jagged. I advise anyone to wait till Amazon gets a batch that are properly made. Very disappointed.