Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important and dramatic chapter in the American story—the settling of the Northwest Territory by dauntless pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would come to define our country.

David McCullough was a historian and Pulitzer Prize winner who died earlier this year (August 7, 2022) at age eighty-nine. He received the Pulitzer for his books on John Adams and Harry Truman and he wrote many other histories ranging from the Wright Brothers to the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. I have only read two of his books prior to this one (The Wright Brothers and The Great Bridge) but hopefully at some point I will get to some of his others.

THE PIONEERS was not really what I was expecting. I went into this one kind of blind without really knowing specifically what the book was about. I thought it would probably be about the settling of the Far West but I was surprised when it was really about the settling of the Northwest Territory (what is now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin)—the book is not about the entire Northwest Territory but focuses on Ohio and specifically on the town of Marietta on the banks of the Ohio River. The book provided a lot of information including skirmishes with the Indians which included the Shawnee warrior Tecumseh. But the focus of the book was on the original settlers of Ohio who had to clear the land of its dense forest and make a life for themselves in the wilderness. The settlers that made up most of the narrative were people I had never heard of such as Manasseh Cutler and Rufus Putnam who were instrumental in getting the young Congress to pass the Northwest Ordinance which opened the land to settlers. Part of this ordinance prohibited slavery in the territory. Included in the narrative were some events that I really found interesting. For one, the book discusses how Aaron Burr, after his duel with Alexander Hamilton, fled down the Ohio and was part of a conspiracy which tried to get the western states to secede from the east. Burr was later tried for treason over this. Other tidbits included Charles Dickens trip to America and his trip to Cincinnati by steamboat. Dickens really disliked the American people.

Overall, I found most of this to be interesting and it really told a part of American history that I was mostly unfamiliar with. I sometimes thought the narrative was a little scattered with so many different personages playing a role in the story—it was a little had to keep track of them all. I didn't think this was as well written as the other books I have read by McCullough but it is still worth reading for the history gained. And it definitely gave me some ideas for followup reading. I especially want to read more about Aaron Burr.

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