The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West by David McCullough

The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West Reviews

• 
  Minosh

  This book is infuriating. The fact that books that are so blatantly offensive towards Indigenous people can still be published in 2019 is disgusting. This book ignores decades of scholarship by Native and allied historians of the region in favor of nationalist propaganda. Skip this and read Susan Sleeper-Smith's book Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest instead, which covers the Ohio River valley in a similar time period and argues that far from being a "primeval wilderness," this region was actually a thriving center of Indigenous prosperity--and that is exactly why Americans wanted to colonize it.
  
  Some quotes from just the description and first chapter:
  
  

  "They and their families created a town in a primeval wilderness, while coping with such frontier realities as floods, fires, wolves and bears, no roads or bridges, no guarantees of any sort, all the while negotiating a contentious and sometimes hostile relationship with the native people."
  
  “But in all the immense territory to the northwest of the Ohio River, the territory from which five states were to emerge—Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin—there was as yet not one permanent legal settlement.
  
  A few remote forts had been established and there were hunters, trappers, fur traders, and “squatters,” those who settled wherever they chose and without legal claim to the land.
  
  Much, too, was reported of forests teeming with wolves, bears, wild boars, panthers, rattlesnakes, and the even more deadly copperheads. And, as every easterner knew, there was the “Indian menace,” the many native tribes who considered the Ohio country their rightful, God-granted domain. Much blood had already been shed in wilderness battles and atrocities committed by both natives and white men. These were realities well-known throughout the east and particularly on the minds of those gathered at the Bunch of Grapes.
  
  … [a paragraph of overly explicit description of massacres by and of Native people] ....
  
  Only the year before the Bunch of Grapes meeting, one of the group, General Benjamin Tupper, as part of a government surveying party, had been turned back from entering the Ohio country so severe was Indian resistance to the encroaching settlers.”
• 
  Brina

  The summer is heating up; school is finally out, and for me that means reading a variety of books about Americana and what makes the country a great place to live. I have lived in Ohio for nearly twelve years and admittedly know little about the state’s history besides the unit my kids study in fourth grade social studies. They do have an excellent teacher, but what they study in grammar school barely scratches the surface of Ohio history. When I found out that master American storyteller David McCullough had written a new book detailing the earliest settlers in Ohio, I knew that his book would be one of the highlights of my summer. As with other McCullough books I have read, I was not disappointed.
  
  I may be a tad biased when I say that no one relates history better than David McCullough. He may not be as in depth as some of the other leading history writers today, but what he does, at least in his later years, is take an event and tell the story behind it to bring the historical figures to life. As he relates in the acknowledgment section, a few years ago he was invited to be the commencement speaker at Ohio University on the occasion of the school’s 200th anniversary. While there, McCullough had the privilege of visiting the school’s library and discovering the family names Cutler, Putnam, Barker, and Hildreth. The patriarchs behind these families were the first pioneers to Marietta, Ohio from the eastern settlements following the passing of the 1787 Northwest Ordinance. The Northwest Ordinance and the basics behind the law are known to most people who study American history, but little is known about the people who began the American migration west. McCullough was intrigued by the idea of bringing the story of these early Ohio settlers to light.
  
  The Reverend Manasseh Cutler of Massachusetts was an early supporter of abolition. On visits to New York and Philadelphia, he was instrumental in getting the Northwest Ordinance passed. The law stated that no there would be no slavery in the Northwest Territories, which would later comprise the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. As a result, early Americans from the northeast desired to move west. Among the first group of pioneers leaving from Massachusetts in 1793 included the estimable Rufus Putnam, who would be the first leader of the new community of Marietta, Ohio, a town on the banks where the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers came together. Bordering Virginia and a few days ride to Pittsburgh on the Allegheny River, Marietta appeared to be in the perfect location to be the gateway to America’s west.
  
  McCullough details the perils of creating a settlement in the western unknown including fever and other illnesses, skirmishes with Native Americans, the lack of food in cold winters, and the usual hindrances that come with the creation of a new town. Rufus Putnam envisioned a city on a hill in the tradition of his Massachusetts forbears. Although Marietta never became the jewel of the Ohio, the first generation of settlers saw the beauty in the land and desired to call the city home. Among these pioneers included building planner Joseph Barker, town leader Ephraim Cutler, and Dr. Samuel Hildreth. These men along with Rufus Putnam lived into their seventies and eighties and saw Ohio transform into a state at the forefront of riverboat commerce before their eyes. It was their vision to establish early laws, however, that lead to later waves of settlers in Ohio.
  
  Many names in this story are familiar to me including Sycamore, Wyandot, and Blue Jacket. I learned about the formation of Cincinnati as the Queen City on the Ohio River, as well as the move of the state capital to Columbus, and the establishment of Cleveland on the shores of Lake Erie. I wondered how my neighboring community of Pleasant Ridge was established in 1796 when Cincinnati didn’t figure as a national center of commerce for another forty years. Another anecdote that McCullough mentions in passing is John Quincy Adams speaking at the inauguration of the Norwood Conservatory in 1843, hoping of Cincinnati becoming a leader in planetary exploration. As this conservatory is only fifteen minutes from my home, I found this story within a story as well as others to be fascinating.
  
  Due to the far reaching vision of Manasseh Cutler and the pioneering efforts of his son Ephraim as well as other trailblazers, Ohio lead America’s way west. After the exploration of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, communities on the banks of the Ohio River became the early gateway to the west, with Marietta being an early jewel. David McCullough brings the story of these settlers to life. It is always a treat to read one of his books, as the Pioneers was a fun way to kick off my summer reading.
  
  4+ stars
• 
  Diane S ☔

  2.5 There were parts I enjoyed, but parts that were flitting all over the place. I have been to Marietta, many times. Love it there, so it was interesting to see how it was named. Also the settling of parts of the country I had never read before. Strange to think that when my state, Illinois was admitted into the union in 1818, the total population was only 36,000. Enjoyed the ending parts with John Quincy Adams, that was touching. As a cohesive whole though, I found it lacking. There were so many characters, so many events muddled together, at times reading was for me quite frustrating. Seems as soon as I would become interested in a person or information, he would flit over to something else. So as you can see, a very mixed read for me.
• 
  Chrissie

  Going into this book with little information, I picked it up based on the merits of David McCullough’s earlier books. From the start, I was immediately struck by its excessive quantity of detail, the multitude of individuals referred to and that the prose did not flow well. I went to Simon & Schuster’s book website, searching for clarity:
  
  “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."
  
  "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. They and their families created a town in a primeval wilderness, while coping with such frontier realities as floods, fires, wolves and bears, no roads or bridges, no guarantees of any sort, all the while negotiating a contentious and sometimes hostile relationship with the native people. Like so many of McCullough’s subjects, they let no obstacle deter or defeat them."
  
  "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. This is a revelatory and quintessentially American story, written with David McCullough’s signature narrative energy.”
  
  I have underlined those portions I comment upon.
  
  The five individuals focused upon are
  1. General Rufus Putnam
  2. Manasseh Cutler-minister
  3. Ephraim Cutler- Manasseh’s son Cutler
  4. Samuel Hildreth-doctor and botanist
  5. Joe Barker-carpenter, boat-builder and architect
  
  I state these names in an effort to help prospective readers distinguish between the important and less important figures. One returns to these five because it is they who have written the letters and diary entries. None become individuals a reader empathizes with. A reader does not come to know them personally.
  
  When listening, it is difficult to know which lines are quotes and which the prose of the author or those of his staff who aid him in the writing of books. Furthermore, different writing styles are evident; they are not seamlessly interwoven into each other.
  
  The author does not analyze the veracity of the statements made. Particularly the claims made by white settlers about the behavior and actions of Native Americans are worth questioning. Opposing points of view are absent.
  
  The high moral integrity of the settlers is stressed. The presentation of an objective and balanced study of the facts does not seem to be the book’s aim.
  
  John Bedford Lloyd’s narration of the audiobook I have given three stars. You can easily hear what he says but it is difficult to distinguish which of the lines are direct quotes. Where he pauses is not always right.
  
  
  
  **************************
  
  *
  Mornings on Horseback5 stars
  *
  John Adams 5 stars
  *
  Truman 5 stars
  *
  The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 4 stars
  *
  The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge 4 stars
  *
  The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris 4 stars
  *
  The Wright Brothers 4 stars
  *
  The Johnstown Flood 4 stars
  *
  1776 3 stars
  *
  The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West 2 stars
• 
  Brian

  “The Northwest Ordinance was designed to guarantee what would one day be known as the American way of life.”
  
  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 interest. Among other things their origin awakens a lively curiosity. From whence did they spring? At what period was their country settled? For what causes, under what circumstances, and for what objects were difficulties met and overcome?” These words, written over 200 years ago are the problem with the US today. Most people don’t look at these things with a desire to learn and understand context, they just want to feel a fake sense of moral superiority by looking down their noses at it. One review of this book took umbrage that McCullough views these folks as heroes. Don’t get me started on that idiocy!
  This book is short, by McCullough standards, coming in under 300 pages, but it is an important one.
  I will end with what Mr. McCullough himself said was the reason he wrote "The Pioneers". “What was for me particularly exciting was the realization that I now had the opportunity to write about a cast of real-life characters of historic accomplishment who were entirely unknown to most Americans-to bring them to life, bring them center stage and tell their amazing, and I felt, important story.”
• 
  Heidi

  When I heard of the passing of David McCullough, I realized, despite owning several of his books (the Mister is a fan), I had not read any of them.
  
  I’m ashamed to admit that page count might have been one of the biggest reasons I chose The Pioneers to honor the author’s passing. I won’t do that again!
  
  It could have been 10 times longer and I’d still willing sit and listen/read to McCullough’s translation of facts to paper. History came alive— first hand accounts were especially poignant at times.
  
  I was fascinated from beginning to end— and not just because I’ve always enjoyed early American history but because this was one of the most thoroughly interesting non-fiction book I’ve ever read— and I just wanted more! Yes, the book hopped around a bit, but with the subject matter and the breadth and width of time period, it didn’t bother me at all
  
  I grew up in southern New England and moved to Ohio (for the second time) in my early 20s. More than 30 years later, I have finally begun to realize the importance of the founding of this state.
  
  Throughout my career, I’ve spent much time writing about Ohio’s landscape and natural (flora and fauna) diversity while acknowledging the loss of so much of its pre-settlement natural characteristics.
  
  Now I know “the rest of the story” and despite modern day politics (I live in one of the most circuitous, ridiculous electoral maps in the state), Ohio’s forebears determined the future of this country by ensuring the end of slavery and guaranteeing free education.
  
  The Cutlers, the Putnams and the Hildreths are just a few of the early settlers whose foothold on our country’s early history became the bedrock for what was right about this land 250 plus years ago.
  
  So many moments of history happened with the northwest expansion beginning with Ohio—the good, bad, and very ugly (the removal of all Native peoples for example). To hear it through the words of those who loved it was indeed a pleasure despite the conflict over events so wrong, they can never truly be righted.
  
  The last third of the book is somewhat disjointed as the author stays with the people and not the westward expansion beyond the Ohio River. It is the Americans who played a role in those early land companies whose early ideas set the stage for settlers (many immigrants) to continue to look for opportunities beyond the Ohio valley.
  
  As I travel the interstates of my adopted home state, certain town and county names will elicit the respect due for the “pioneers” they were named for.
  
  PS— Next on my field trip list is Marietta and the Ohio River Island that saw the downfall of Aaron Burr.
• 
  Matt

  David McCullough is back with another of his interesting tomes on American history, this time turning to some of the early settlers. In this piece, McCullough explores those who ventured outside the original thirteen states to explore the newly opened and vast territories of the Midwest. Armed with the passion to explore, these men sought to develop a way of life not seen on these lands before, encountering much in the wilderness, from well-established Indian settlements to countless animals who had made the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin their home. Led by the decorated Revolutionary War General Rufus Putnam, these men did all in their power to expand the land and population control by those in the American Government. McCullough explores the ideas of a handful of men, through their letters, diaries, and other documents that would shed light on the plight of the settlers and their encounters with things unknown. As the tome continues, McCullough mixes history with political drama, showing that the exploration included some controversy, particularly among those who did not want to create too democratic a region that was still on shaky legs. Slavery and limited suffrage became themes, both in the tome and history, that wove their way into the story, all a part of the larger story that created modern crises. McCullough effectively examines the thoughts and sentiments of these curious men, fuelled by a desire to open the uncharted lands and expound the virtues of American ideals as America sought to leave infancy and enter a more mature and stable way of life. Wonderful for those who enjoy learning about some of the lesser-documented pieces of American history and recommended for readers who have long found David McCullough to be easy to comprehend.
  
  I always enjoy finding myself in the middle of a David McCullough piece, particularly because I am sure to learn something and never be resting on my haunches. McCullough has a way of telling a story that pulls the reader into the middle of the action, surrounding them with key documents and arguments from the time. While I am sure history books speak generally of the settling of the Northwest Territory, McCullough seeks to fill some of the many gaps with his own research and first-hand documents that enrich the reading experience. From diary entries about the daily/weekly findings to the letters home that describe things of a more passionate nature, McCullough personalises the lives of these men. In addition, McCullough puts much of the exploration into historical perspective, while life in the big cities became a political and social battle. Politics was surely all about how to acquire land and settle it, but also to create territorial governments and legislatures to better run things on a local level. With large chapters full of information, McCullough gives the reader a chance to be part of the action without getting too bogged down in minutiae. One can only hope that others will take this rubric and run with it in their own depiction of history, while McCullough finds more areas worthy of exploration, sure to entertain those who love his writing.
  
  Kudos, Mr. McCullough, for a fabulous addition to your collection. I am eager to see what you have next and will tell others who much I enjoyed this piece.
  
  Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
  
  http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
  
  A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge:
  https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
• 
  Luke

  Unfortunately, especially in this day and age, people want their beliefs and their political messages/rhetoric justified in every book they read (or don't read for that matter). The reviews/ratings for this book will surely reflect that, since revisiting well known early Americans and their roles in Native American treatment and slavery are hot topics today. Westward expansion hits on both topics.
  
  McCullough has never pandered to this political crowd (on either side), and this book is no different. Anyone who reads his books knows that he is always interested in telling stories of people, not political movements or complete histories of larger movements (e.g. western expansion). So this is not a complete telling of westward expansion. This book tells stories about people worth telling stories about. McCullough starts with the Ohio Company and writes expertly on the key players working for it that moved west and established Marietta in the Ohio Country. It covers time from mid 1780s to ~1850, with most of the book focusing on the first half of that range. Interesting "side bars" linked to his stories include the settlers writing to George Washington for help in defense, the treason story of Aaron Burr and John Quincy Adam's fight against slavery.
  
  If you want to hear the true stories of these people, and the hardships they faced head on and overcame, I would recommend reading the book.
• 
  Jean

  David McCullough is one of my favorite historians. He won two Pulitzer Prizes in 1993 and 2002 for his biographies of Truman and John Adams. The book starts out discussing the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, but the majority of the book follows a number of families who settle the North Bank of the Ohio River.
  
  The book is well writing and researched. McCullough provides an excellent description of the Ohio River, forests and mountains of the west. The time frame of the book is from 1787 to about 1863. McCullough provides a great picture of the movement westward. I enjoyed the story of the coonskin library. This book would be a great summer family reading project.
  
  I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is ten hours and twenty-three minutes. John Bedford Lloyd does a good job narrating the book. Lloyd is an actor and long-time audiobook narrator. He won an Earphone Award and the Audiofile Best of 2011 in Biography and Memoir Narrator.
  
• 
  Alan Tomkins-Raney

  This book tells the story of the settlement of Ohio, focusing primarily on the history of Marietta, Ohio, established by the first pioneers arriving in the country west of Pennsylvania and North of the Ohio River. This may not sound like much breadth of scope for a David McCullough book, and some reviewers have faulted the book and the author for precisely this reason. However, McCullough is not only a great historian, but such a talented educator and gifted storyteller that I found this to be one of my favorites of his works. The town and its inhabitants truly come alive in these pages, and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment reading this informative, interesting, and uplifting book. Perhaps for me it was a matter of treating one small part of America's expansionist history superbly well, in particular that one part that exemplifies and was the beginning of the rest. Indeed, this was one of the best books I've read this year, and I definitely and unreservedly recommend it.
• 
  David Eppenstein

  Objectively this is a good book but it disappointed me. Since it did disappoint me I should be giving it two stars instead of three but my disappointment might be somewhat unfair and subjective so I give it three in recognition of my failings and not the author's. When this book's publication was being promoted it caught my immediate attention. McCullough is certainly no lightweight historian and the subject of the Northwest Territory and its early settlers was an intriguing subject. I read Allan Eckert's book, ,Frontiersmen last year and was quite taken by that book and its scope, detail, and exciting story. I fully expected somebody like McCullough to replicate if not surpass Eckert's considerable achievement. That was not to be and therein lies my disappointment. I would imagine that had I never read the Eckert book my appreciation for this book would be different but then again maybe not.
  
  McCullough's book was promoted as a history of the pioneers that settled the Northwest Territory in the late 18th century into the early 19th. The time span for this book is 1787 to 1863 and it does tell the story of some of these early pioneers but to me it only scratches the surface. The book is primarily a history of the founding and settling of Marietta, Ohio, the first town in the NW Territory. Unlike the Eckert book whose history covered Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois this book never leaves Ohio and doesn't really cover that much history of that state. McCullough only describes one military engagement with the Indians and that involved the first governor of the Ohio Territory and was a resounding defeat for the military. The only other mention of engagements with the Indians was their final defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers which was lead by future president William Henry Harrison and a mention is all that battle is given. I do not believe you can tell the story of the settling of the NW territory and give such meagre treatment to the relationship of the settlers to the Indians in the Territory. But this isn't my book and this is merely my opinion as a reader and history nerd. Thanks to Mr. Eckert I knew there was more of a story here and I was looking forward to an author of McCullough's caliber to deliver it.
  
  While I didn't get what I expected I did get a good story about a small Ohio town and the people that settled it and built it. In passing I was also treated to tidbits of the history of Ohio and some of the other towns that later became major American cities like Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus. I say in passing because no serious treatment of the settling of these other towns is offered just simple statements of progress and historical events but no serious historical treatment. It is not an exaggeration to say that this book is primarily a history of Marietta, Ohio and its founders and if the book had been promoted as such it would not have been such a disappointment. While the Marietta founders were pioneers in this territory and they did experience many of the hardships of such an endeavor they were also spared a great deal. Marietta is located in the far Southeastern corner of the state and almost at the edge of the NW Territory's border with Pennsylvania. Those pioneers that ventured further West and to the North endured greater hardships especially because of their remoteness and their proximity to hostile Indians. Little mention is made of the plight of these pioneers and I can't help but think this book is a thin treatment at 258 page of text of a story that is much bigger.
  
  
• 
  Mary

  I've long been a fan of David McCullough, having read and enjoyed four of his earlier books. This book, however, was a great disappointment. Rather than bringing history to life with the vivid descriptions and crisp writing style for which he's so well respected, McCullough takes the path of least resistance by liberally stringing together quotes drawn from a trove of original sources. As a result the book lacks cohesion and is, quite frankly, dull.
• 
  Linda

  David McCullough always writes appealing books and this one (read from an eARC provided by Edelweiss) does not disappoint. I've always learned from his books but this one was on a subject that I was not at all acquainted with: the first American settlements in the Ohio territory. I knew that the Ohio territory was the first 'west' that Americans went flocking to but no other details and I even ended up hauling out an atlas so I could figure out where exactly these first pioneers settled.
  Unlike his wonderful stories of American icons such as Truman and John Adams, his main characters are for the most part unknown to us although they live on in state and town history. Most of them are men of character as well - they lived long lives and they were instrumental in making the Ohio territory a place that people wanted to come to as well as insisting that the Ohio territory would be a place where slaves were not allowed.
  Of course, as in all of American history, the people who were already 'settlers' there, the native Americans, lost out as European Americans started their first push west. McCullough also is able to cover the immense changes in the lifetimes of these first settlers as they go from using sailboats to the first steam boats that made transportation easier. The descriptions of what this part of America looked like to these first European American settlers with huge old growth forests makes you appreciate how hard it was to clear the land as well as long for the huge trees to still be there. Once again David McCullough has written a readable and informative history of our nation.
• 
  Janis

  It’s always a treat to have a new David McCullough book! In The Pioneers, he tells the story of the early settlers of the Ohio River Valley, from those who first moved to the frontier and broke land to those who created communities and governing bodies. While the story he tells is specific, focusing on particular families and the region that is now Marietta, Ohio, it gave me a great sense of the changes and movements of those early years of 19th century-America – and how they were linked to our both founding ideals and to the schisms that led to the Civil War. Rich in detail, vividly told, it’s a fascinating and inspiring account. Look for this book on May 7, 2019.
• 
  ladydusk

  This is really a 4.5
  
  I loved this. My home state and it's establishment. I loved following the characters from early settlement up to the Civil War. I enjoyed following the Cutler family, in particular.
  
  I took a half star off because there was one missing major piece, in my opinion. Set in the early 1800s, the Second Great Awakening and the Circuit Riders would have been very important in the early settlement and I was disappointed that this part of the establishment of Ohio was neglected.
  
  Overall, this was fantastic - I plan to read more McCullough for sure. This is my second one ever - we listened to The Wright Brothers a number of years ago and I really enjoyed that, too. I plan to add more in the future.
• 
  Jim

  
  David McCullough is a master storyteller and it shows in
  The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West. While it may not be as great as
  John Adams or
  Truman it is nonetheless a great story that provides insight into a part of American history that I knew little about.
  
  It covers the 1787 - 1863 time period and is the story of the settling of the Northwest Territory. The area containing the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The story is told through five main characters ... a Massachusetts minister named Manasseh Cutler, his son Ephraim, Revolutionary War veteran General Rufus Putnam, Dr. Samuel Hildreth, and Joseph Barker. Reverend Manasseh Cutler was instrumental in getting the Northwest Ordinance passed. The ordinance opened this territory to veterans of the Revolutionary War and their families for settlement and there were three conditions: freedom of religion, free universal education, and the prohibition of slavery.
  
  These earlier settlers helped build the town of Marietta in a wilderness while dealing with disease, floods, fire, wild animals, and occasional skirmishes with Native Americans. While the story of Marietta plays a central part in the story you learn about the founding of Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus. You learn about a visit that John Quincy Adams made and how the steamboat changed river commerce. It is the story of some rather remarkable people who overcame many obstacles but would not be deterred.
  
  I always learn something when I read one of
  David McCullough's books and this was no exception. And in this story I learned about a chapter in history that I was not familiar with.
• 
  Jessica J.

  This book is, essentially, about the area where I grew up. I spent the first 24 years of my life in the 50 or so miles between Marietta, where the first Americans looking to establish a permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory, came ashore and Athens, the site of the first public university in the Territory. I took elementary school field trips to Campus Martius, Coonskin Library, and Blennerhassett Island. When it was time for college, I had to choose between, among others, Ohio University and Marietta College (the latter won out). I know many of the people that McCullough mentions in his acknowledgments of those at 'Etta who helped him.
  
  So I knew some of the broad strokes of this story already. Some of the details were fuzzy and some I never had because no ninth-grade local history course is going to get into this much detail. But I was able to vividly picture most of the places McCullough explores in this book so well that I even texted college friends about spelling mistakes in the map in the front pages (which labels one of the streets in Marietta Putman St instead of Putnam, a common mistake but not one that should be present in a book in which the man for whom the street is named could be called a primary character).
  
  This book isn't extraordinary. The writing can be a bit dry in spots and I'm not totally sure if McCullough wanted to make an argument or provide a frame for the story he wished to tell. It would have been nice to ground the history in the modern era a little more fully, but this is my first McCullough and I'm not sure if he ever really does that? I also wish the book had been a little bit more sympathetic to the Native Americans encountered by the pioneers, as much of the book focused on their savagery and the fear that the settlers had for them, tired tropes that could certainly use some challenging or at the very least more critical examination. Regardless, I found this book quite interesting though I know much of that is perhaps due to the personal connections.
• 
  Karl Jorgenson

  I'm a fan of David McCullough, and this book confirms my attraction. He's a well-researched historian and a skillful writer and storyteller. Here, in newly independent United States of America, some farsighted, brave people decided they ought to expand the country west, along the Ohio River. With enthusiasm and determination they do it. But there's more than chopping down trees and planting corn. They brought their 'New England' values with them to the territory that would become Ohio, particularly a prohibition on slavery (Suck it, NYT 1619 project), and a strong commitment to education. The former led to the civil war, as the slavery-south was increasingly outnumbered and outclassed by the expanding anti-slavery north and west, and the latter led to modern America, where children are routinely educated in public schools and have access to state-founded colleges. Every leap forward in technology, from the Wright Brothers to polio vaccines to smart phones, is partly due to the early belief in universal education. This is the history I wish I'd studied in school; what I actually memorized and forgot were a lot of battle dates for the Revolutionary War. Even if the details of the war were informative, beyond the outcome (we fought for independence, we won independence,) my school failed to convey anything relevant, such as the difficulty for the Crown, fighting a war across the ocean, the resource draining fight against France, the cost to a debt strapped monarchy, and the extreme difficulty in pacifying colony cities full of hostile civilians while carrying the fight to the countryside. All of this would have been fun stuff for kids interested in military history, but still useless for our understanding of these United States. What they ought to do in public schools is teach this book and the history surrounding it.
• 
  Leslie Ray

  David McCullough is an excellent writer and this book, like all of his books, is well written. It describes the American expansion into the Ohio including the settlements and ultimately the attention to making sure public education was a priority. The descriptions of the landscape and the harrowing journey was enlightening and kept my attention. The focus was also on a lot of lesser known people in history in order to bring to light their sacrifice and challenges as they forged west.
• 
  David

  I received the “Pioneers” as an Advanced Reader’s Copy. Having read and rated highly David McCullough’s “John Adams” and “Truman”, I found “Pioneers” a little above average. Dealing with the opening of the West, starting essentially with Ohio, I would say McCullough does better when he focuses on an individual such as a president.
  
  He did that here too but more on individual pioneers such as Putnam and Cutler in addition to another dozen or so pioneers who were trailblazers. He traces from where many of them began in New England to how they died in places like Marietta, Ohio.
  
  He treats the story of Aaron Burr from the perspective of Ohioans, which I found enlightening enough to make me want to read that scoundrel’s biography. (Burr somehow reminds me of a modern version of a demagogue that we now contend with.)
  
  McCullough records in detail battles with the Indians, who are not romanticized here, but are seen more as frightened and fierce societies defending themselves against an invasion they cannot understand; much like earthlings would be if invaded by aliens from outer space.
  
  He details the sickness and death that the pioneers faced, the huge disappointments by entrepreneuring settlers and their happiness in carrying off a grand plan, like the establishment of Marietta, Ohio, or the founding of Ohio University. He records the impact of the steamboats on the rivers and how trade multiplied so fast due to their activity.
  
  So, all in all, one who is interested in what the end of the 18th Century and the beginning of the 19th Century were like in America would gain from reading “Pioneers”.
  
• 
  Kon R.

  Yet another random read for me. I assumed this would cover the western expansion of the United States, but surprisingly it was about the origin of Ohio only. With Ohio being in the news right now, what perfect timing! Fun fact: Ohio was the first western state. For more facts you'll just have to read the dang book yourself.
  
  This is my second McCullough work and it definitely won't be my last. I would say to check out my review of The Johnstown Flood, but mysteriously it's gone missing. McCullough has a talent for painting history as a story filled to the brim with interesting characters. Some of which you might have heard of *cough*JohnnyAppleseed*cough*.
  
  History nerds will have a wonderful time with this. For the rest of us, the Johnstown Flood was a way more exciting read. Colonizing is cool and all, but death and destruction is really my cup of tea. Some of the topics covered here include slavery, creation of the steam engine, taxation for public schools, conflicts with Native Americans, and very briefly, the California gold rush.
• 
  Anita Pomerantz

  It's really hard for me not to compare everything McCullough writes to
  Truman which is an incredible presidential biography. While The Pioneers has a catchy title, it really is about the settlement of Ohio, specifically Marietta. Three interesting men, and by extension their sons who carried on their work: Manasseh Cutler (and son Ephraim), Rufus Putnam, and Samuel Hildreth. These folks bravely ventured forth into the wilderness and established a territory without slavery and with free education. Unfortunately, there's a plethora of other bit players, and the many names and minor achievements start to run together in a big blur. There's one whole chapter devoted to Hildreth's vacation through New York and New England which seemed a bit beside the point. It is interesting to note the huge advances in transport between the late 1700's and mid 1800's, and navigation of the Ohio river seemed to contribute significantly to those developments. But all in all, the book felt more like McCullough came across some great source material which he shaped into a book rather than originating a great book idea and searching for the sources to support it.
• 
  Joseph Sciuto

  David McCullough's "The Pioneers" is simply wonderful. Mr. McCullough is among a group of historians you have literally changed American history over the last half-century. What I learned in high school and college back in the 70's and 80's, is to a large extent irrelevant, so completely has the revision been, and continues to be.
  
  "The Pioneers"is the story of the settling of the Northwest territory (Ohio) by a group of conscientious, hard working pioneers... Many of who were members of the Revolutionary War and families from the New England area of the country. Included in their constitution (The Northwest Ordinance) were the extraordinary conditions of freedom of religion, free universal education, and the prohibition of slavery. The story is told through the eyes of five individuals spanning the years from 1786 to 1864. It is enthralling, uplifting, and a testimony to the power and creativity of the American spirit, and in the hands of Mr McCullough it is poetic and beautiful. Highly recommend.
• 
  Tamar...playing hooky for a few hours today

  OK, I nearly tossed my cookies more than once while listening to the very long and very graphic description of the Big Bottom Massacre....I don't remember learning this in my 4th grade lessons on the history of Ohio
  
  
  
  Other than that, the book was interesting but I remember now why I didn't major in History in college.
• 
  Deacon Tom F

  Well Written
  
  Once again, David McCullough delivers a winner.
  
  It is a story of how the West was settled. Not the far west bit the farthest West known after the Revolutionary War. The bulk was focused on the settlement of Ohio.
  
  As usual, it is incredibly well referenced including pictures from the time.
  
  Great Job!
• 
  Benjamin

  The subtitle is “the heroic story of the settlers who brought the American ideal west” — sure, if the American ideal is imperialism, environmental destruction, and genocide. The storytelling is just as good as I expect from a David McCullough history, but it gets one star because of the one-sidedness. We learn all about the backstory, families, hopes, and dreams of the “pioneers,” but nothing about the people whose home they are invading. There are tons of quotes from letters and journals of “settlers” about the “havoc” that the “savages” cause, but nothing from the native Americans who are fighting off the invaders.
  Nope, thanks; this narrative about “heroic” settlers is wayyyyy too prevalent in history books already. Anybody have recommendations for the Native American side of the narrative?
• 
  Frank

  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.
• 
  Aaron Million

  Anyone who has read one of the late David McCullough's books knows that he could write a great story. So many of his books are essentially that: wonderfully told stories. This book, his last one, is the story of New England pioneers moving west to settle the Ohio country shortly after the conclusion of the American Revolution and the passage of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, which opened up what eventually became most of the Midwest to settlement. As to whether this story is on par with most of McCullough's earlier excellent works, is of course a subjective call by the reader. For this reader, the story was alright, but nothing approaching great.
  
  McCullough has several main characters throughout the book, starting with the Reverend Manasseh Cutler. He was one of the leading proponents of opening up the "west" (at this point, anything west of Pittsburgh was considered such) to settlement. Many people in New England wanted to make the move - some were Revolutionary War veterans who were owed land for their recent service, some wanted an adventure, some wanted an escape from the harsh New England winters, and some just wanted to farm a new land. Cutler traveled to Philadelphia to lobby Congress to pass the Ordinance, and to make the new lands free of slavery. Ultimately, he succeeded, although this is one of the areas where I thought that McCullough sort of fell flat. Apparently Cutler was not having much success in his lobbying efforts, and at one point started to prepare himself for defeat, when for some reason the Congress decided to approve the Ordinance. Why the sudden change? What was the deciding factor? How pivotal was Cutler? McCullough does not really elaborate. I would have liked to have known more about how the passage came to be.
  
  The scene then shifts to Ohio, and the perilous journey to get there. Keep in mind this was the late 1780s. There were not even steamboats back then, and in many places there were not any roads. Crossing the Allegheny Mountains in central Pennsylvania was treacherous and by no means a task to be taken lightly. When one finally got to the other side of the range, it became easier at Pittsburgh as then the pioneers could use the Ohio River to travel the rest of their way to their new home. One theme that runs throughout the book is that of the advancements in travel. While obviously primitive compared to the comforts that we enjoy today, boat travel improved markedly in the early 1800s, with steam ships starting to become a familiar site on the Ohio, then by the end of the book the railroad had came into existence.
  
  McCullough focuses on the settlement of Marietta, Ohio, at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers. This land was very hilly and heavily forested, so the pioneers had a lot of work to do in just clearing areas away to build crude huts or log cabins. They were the first white men out there, and they were indeed trying to start a settlement from scratch. It also was not as if they could cruise up the river to a nearby town if they needed anything either. They were way away from any type of supplies or medicine (not that there was much of this at that time).
  
  This period of the book is mostly dominated by the looming threat of Indian attacks. I know that McCullough has taken some flack over his one-sided portrayal of the skirmishes and dealings with the various Native tribes, that he was presenting the traditional "the white man is great" storyline and the Indians were "savages". As I was reading this section of the book, I kept asking myself if this criticism is valid. Ultimately I had a mixed reaction on this issue, feeling that McCullough's approach was not the best and that he definitely left himself open to some criticism, while also thinking that much of the criticism was overblown. First, on the side against McCullough, this is clearly a one-side narrative. While acknowledging that the whites were no angels either, McCullough makes no effort here to understand things from the Natives' perspectives - we get no stories about anyone on that side, their fears, their attachment to the land that their peoples had lived and hunted on for generations. McCullough was a historian; he should have known better than to have excluded the Native perspective. I think it would have made the story, and by consequence the book, richer. It is definitely a missing element. He could have, and should have done better here, especially since he had a tendency at times to romanticize the settlers. On the other hand, the reader has to ask the question: what is the author's purpose in writing this book? McCullough's purpose was to write about the pioneers, not the natives; to write about events and things as experienced by the pioneers, from their perspective. This was not a general history about the settling of Ohio, but rather a focused study of the settling of Marietta as experienced by those who did it, what their motivations were and how they persevered. To add in the Native tribes' experiences would move the story into something else. Do I think that McCullough should have still done that? Yes. Do I think the fact that he didn't makes this book less accurate or not true history? No. I do think that he would have benefitted by explaining this, either at the beginning or end of the book, so as to blunt some expected criticism.
  
  Despite his somewhat flawed handling of that early settlement period, I actually found that to be the most interesting section of this relatively short book. The remainder of it focuses more or less on the development of Marietta, while loosing following the Cutlers (Manasseh himself never moved there but most of his children did and one of his sons, Ephraim, became a town leader and indeed a significant figure in the state), Samuel Hildreth and Rufus Putnam. The Ohio River itself also is a character. Its very existence paved the way for the settlement of this land. Occasionally McCullough deviates to write about someone returning to Massachusetts to visit, and a whole chapter is devoted to when former Vice President Aaron Burr blew into town, working on a scheme to make himself powerful and wealthy in the western territory (even over 200 years later, I'm still not sure that anyone knows exactly what Burr was trying to do). McCullough also documents brief visits to the town by the Marquis de Lafayette and John Quincy Adams.
  
  While McCullough could still tell a good story, this was not his best work. It fell flat for me in several spots. It is almost as if he didn't have the energy to devote to a deeper dig into certain topics. In addition to the ones mentioned above, I wanted to know why Cincinnati, which is further west along the river, became such a major city, while Marietta remained a small town. All McCullough does is say that Cincinnati did, but he does not explain why, or if there was something lacking in Marietta that made it less attractive for businesses to sprout up. Early in the book, he is writing of the miserable first winter experienced by the settlers, and writes of how they almost starved to death. He takes a few pages to do this. Yet on page 70 he writes "Despite the lack of flour and the Indians driving off the game, the settlers survived." How, exactly, did they survive? What did they eat? Where did they get food from?
  
  These are the kinds of things that bothered me about the book: it is like McCullough just went surface level with the story, but failed to investigate a level or two further, which stands in contrast to his many great works from decades past. Perhaps the greatness of his Harry Truman biography spoiled me, not to mention other excellent works such as the John Adams biography and the book on the Brooklyn Bridge. I have read most of McCullough's books, but the final two - this one and the biography of the Wright brothers - were pale shadows of the type of work that McCullough churned out in his prime. This one was still good enough to be an easily readable and interesting story, but not much more than that.
  
  Grade: B-
  
• 
  Lorna

  The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West was an all-encompassing story of the pioneers who ventured west to explore and settle the Northwest Territory lying northwest of the Ohio River in the latter part of the eighteenth century and well into the nineteenth century. The initial expedition was led by the legendary veteran of the Revolutionary War, General Rufus Putnam. Another legendary American was the Reverend Manasseh Cutler of Massachusetts, who was a powerful influence in the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, importantly declaring that there was to be no slavery in the new Northwest Territory. Another key person in the exploration and establishment of the Ohio Territory was the oldest son of Reverend Cutler, Judge Ephraim Cutler. He fought for the ideals of his father as expressed in the Northwest Ordinance. Historian David McCullough allows one to be part of this experience by his engaging historical narrative of this important time in America's history.
  
  "As one widely respected later-day historian, Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard University, would write, 'Never was there a more ingenious, systematic and successful piece of lobbying that that of the Reverend Manasseh Cutler' and the Great Northwest Ordinance of 1787 stands alongside the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence as a bold assertion of the rights of the individual."
  
  "J.S. Buckingham and Charles Dickens were both struck by the immense and lamentable difference between life on the northern and southern sides of the Ohio River. . . Dickens said succinctly, 'Where slavery sits brooding. . . . there is an air of ruin and decay.'"
  
  "Still another foreign traveler of note, Alexis de Tocqueville from France, who was to write one of the most brilliant studies of the American character, would conclude that if there were dark times ahead for the new country and its people, they would be brought about by the presence of slavery. 'They will owe their origin, not to the equality, but to the inequality of condition.'"
• 
  Jim

  This was a book that was selected for our book discussion group and it did make for a lively discussion. The main criticism was that that there were too many names, too many details, and it covered too much. But at least one person thought it was too short and wished for more detail. My feeling is that it was rather short and certainly not as ambitious as other books by McCullough, books such as "John Adams." The focus is on the settlement of Marietta, Ohio, and covers the biographies of five people who were important to that story. They were all interesting people and not well-known (or known at all) in the overall history of America. Note that all five were men. McCullough based this book on his research into the letters and diaries of the men. Women just did not leave so many records of their experiences. They were just TOO busy, besides the fact that they were generally less educated than the men or not educated at all. And that's part of the reason why I give this book 3 stars and not more...it's too one-sided, showing white males as the most important people, the doers, the achievers, and all others are on the sidelines. I'm sure McCullough's purpose was to highlight some lives that deserve greater recognition and not glorify white males above all others. But I feel we need to show the greater complexity in history with the participation of different groups in creating the society we have today. So the Native Americans are regarded as "savages" and the Ohio frontier as a "wilderness." There were developed agrarian societies living sustainably on "the frontier' before the Europeans invaded the lands of the indigenous people. McCullough mentions a great Mound that was located near where the whites settled. I would have liked to learn more about that and the people who built the Mounds. But that was not part of the focus of the book. I guess what I was hoping for was a different book. Still, 3 stars means it's a worthwhile book, although ultimately disappointing.