Exploring the American Dream: The Pioneers Who Settled the West

Charles Scott: If you want a good introduction to famous Revolutionary War heroes, prominent Statesmen, influential business leaders, and other pillars of the community, as seen in a completely different light; from a totally fresh perspective, and a magnificently intensified point of view, look no further than the chronological account of the tumultuous lives of the rugged woodsmen who made their homes in the densely forested region of the Northwest Territory, as it certainly was wooded and occasionally flooded, in the well-documented and informative historical account of, "The Pioneers," by David McCullough, published in 2019. You'll be utterly confounded, dismayed, astounded, and mesmerized learning what happened to the settlers living along the Ohio River from 1787-1863, a critically important era for a great many new arrivals to the American heartland.
After the initial reading, you may be tempted to rush out excitedly, proclaim from the rooftops, or exclaim to the first person you meet,
"I must have missed that vital chapter in American history."
Once upon a time, I remember having read portions of the Oklahoma state history book our teacher handed out in...

United States on May 27, 2023

Martin Suter: Gives us a really good insight into what the lives of the early pioneers was like, with plenty of direct evidence obtained from letters and correspondence of the people who were actually there.

Germany on Mar 31, 2023

Amazon Customer: If you like history, this book is worth reading. Learn things they didn’t teach in school. Well written. Fast reading.

Canada on Aug 27, 2022

David: 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...

United Kingdom on Jul 20, 2020

B. Wilfong: One reads a David McCullough book because one knows they are going to learn about people who shaped our world, but whose stories don’t make the textbooks. People like the remarkable Ephraim Cutler. A man who is almost single handily responsible for slavery never entering the Ohio Territory!
“The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers who Brought the American Ideal West” is not as good as some McCullough, but still very good none the less. Essentially the text focuses on the settlement of Ohio, which in turn opened up the Northwest Territory. As an Ohio native, and current resident, I really loved learning so much about my home that I did not know. I did not know anything about Manasseh and Ephraim Cutler, Dr. Samuel Hildreth, Rufus Putnam and many others. But I now realize I needed to.
David McCullough is such an evenhanded writer. He does not get caught up in postmodern hysteria and judgement. He just recounts facts without foisting modern sensibilities on events. I love and admire that about him. At one point in the text one of the book’s subjects says, “Certain epochs in the history of nations will always attract to themselves a lasting...

United States on Nov 10, 2019

Christian Nugue: Le Far West pour les contemporains de Benjamin Franklin se situait de l'autre côté des Appalaches. D'où la création à la fin du XVIIIème siècle d'une Société de l'Ohio pour coloniser notamment les territoires situés au confluent de cette rivière et de son tributaire. La petite communauté, qui s'établit à Marietta en Géorgie, s'est dotée d'idéaux très élevés: pas d'esclavage, pas de traitement injuste des Indiens. La réalité, fortement adoucie par l'auteur, sera tout autre.

France on Jun 26, 2019

Quebec Customer: As with all of David McCullough's work, I truly enjoyed the rich tapestry of characters and the settings found in this book. He has woven together a cast of characters connected through the settling of a community in Ohio and its development over the decades that followed. I think was fascinated me most was the sheer number of characters in this book who were completely unfamiliar to me (and I dare say to most of those who are well-acquainted with American history) but who came alive through their connected stories. And, even though we are often amazed at the pace of change in our modern lives, I was equally amazed at the pace of change following the settlement of communities in the Northwest territories - though the difficult circumstances they lived through at a personal level was so much more complicated (and deadly) than what we might experience these days. I have no hesitation in recommending this book very highly.

Canada on Jun 02, 2019