Review: The Pioneers by David McCullough

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From https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-massachusetts-ohio-connection.html

The Pioneers can be summed up by the subtitle: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West. 


Out here in Washington state, we think of "The West" as beginning with Lewis and Clark voyaging, mapping and collecting, the Louisiana Purchase, gold discovered at Sutter's Mill, and the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. However, the idea of manifest destiny, that the new young United States would spread west was developing even during the Revolutionary War, and picked up steam after the War of 1812. 

McCullough sets his tale near the beginning of this process, and weaves in many of the pioneering families from New England who saw the "American Ideal" as free, equalitarian and based on education for all. Because the US had allowed slavery in the new Constitution, the battle for freedom and equality was part of the work of settling this new country, although the former inhabitants were, shamefully, excluded from this vision.

Ancestors from Ohio?

Anyone with family or ancestors from Ohio will want to read this book; it is an oft-overlooked part of American history. And those with ancestors from New England will love it! McCullough writes so beautifully, it could be a novel. Fortunately though, the story is based on lifetime of research, and if you have Cutlers, Barker, Hildreth, Nye, Putnam, Backus, Adams, Wetzel, Audubon, Burr, Girty, Knox, Whipple, Creswell, Perkins, Denny, Dawes, Blennerhassett, Cuming, Silliman, Dodge, Shepard, St. Clair, Sargent, Trumbull, Woodbridge you will want this book on your shelf! If you don't mind a used paperback, please contact Valorie for a free copy. Check out Nutfield Genealogy for even more connected surnames.

Valorie Zimmerman


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