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The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West Audio CD – Unabridged, May 7, 2019
David McCullough (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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As part of the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain recognized the new United States of America, Britain ceded the land that comprised the immense Northwest Territory, a wilderness empire northwest of the Ohio River containing the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. A Massachusetts minister named Manasseh Cutler was instrumental in opening this vast territory to veterans of the Revolutionary War and their families for settlement. Included in the Northwest Ordinance were three remarkable conditions: freedom of religion, free universal education, and most importantly, the prohibition of slavery. In 1788 the first band of pioneers set out from New England for the Northwest Territory under the leadership of Revolutionary War veteran General Rufus Putnam. They settled in what is now Marietta on the banks of the Ohio River.
McCullough tells the story through five major characters: Cutler and Putnam; Cutler’s son Ephraim; and two other men, one a carpenter turned architect, and the other a physician who became a prominent pioneer in American science. “With clarity and incisiveness, [McCullough] details the experience of a brave and broad-minded band of people who crossed raging rivers, chopped down forests, plowed miles of land, suffered incalculable hardships, and braved a lonely frontier to forge a new American ideal” (The Providence Journal).
Drawn in great part from a rare and all-but-unknown collection of diaries and letters by the key figures, The Pioneers is a uniquely American story of people whose ambition and courage led them to remarkable accomplishments. “A tale of uplift” (The New York Times Book Review), this is a quintessentially American story, written with David McCullough’s signature narrative energy.
- Print length416 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
- Publication dateMay 7, 2019
- Dimensions5.13 x 0.9 x 5.88 inches
- ISBN-10150827908X
- ISBN-13978-1508279082
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About the Author
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Product details
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster Audio; Unabridged edition (May 7, 2019)
- Language : English
- Audio CD : 416 pages
- ISBN-10 : 150827908X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1508279082
- Item Weight : 8.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.13 x 0.9 x 5.88 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #79,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #44 in Books on CD
- #228 in U.S. Revolution & Founding History
- #1,160 in U.S. State & Local History
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

David McCullough has twice received the Pulitzer Prize, for Truman and John Adams, and twice received the National Book Award, for The Path Between the Seas and Mornings on Horseback; His other widely praised books are 1776, Brave Companions, The Great Bridge, and The Johnstown Flood. He has been honored with the National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award, the National Humanities Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2022
Top reviews from the United States
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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 LINE
One of the best, most-fulfilling historical texts that I have ever read.
Five stars out of five.
"The Pioneers" tells the story not of the swaths of pioneers to the Northwest territories in the late 1700s and early to mid 1800s (it provides 20 or so pages of context to the Northwest Ordinance, but not much else), but of a few families -- mainly the Cutler family -- who traveled to Marietta, Ohio. In that sense, the book covers the pioneers who ventured out west. However, its focus isn't as wide as its title and subtitle would suggest. Because of that, McCullough's book is a dissapointment, but by no means bad.
I only wish the book were longer. At 258 pages, it is on the short side. The first 3/4ths of the book are really well fleshed out, but much of the rest of the book felt rushed and underdeveloped.
Still, "The Pioneers" is a fantastic read with a compelling narrative, lively and entertaining writing, and some very well-chosen letters, diary entries, and other primary sources.
The Verdict: Although it was mismarketed (which I did not take into account in my rating of the book as bad marketing is not the authors fault) and too short and at times underdeveloped, "The Pioneers" is a must-buy both for fans of McCullough and those who enjoy late 18th and 19th century United States History.
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