Its inspiration was the Northwest Ordinance, passed by the Confederation Congress in 1787. The land on which McCullough mostly focuses was called the Northwest Territory, the initial boundaries of which included the Ohio and Muskinghum Rivers. These and many others did the grunt work of nation building. Instead, we’re offered characters who are likely unfamiliar to most, such as Manasseh and Ephraim Cutler, Rufus Putnam and Samuel Hildreth. The Founding Fathers about whom most are familiar - Washington, Jefferson and Adams - play minor roles in McCullough’s book. Nowadays, while students at universities and public schools are learning a history often tainted by political correctness and revisionism, Pittsburgh native McCullough writes of a young country that might have been stillborn were it not for these pioneers. It’s called “The Pioneers” and the subtitle is its theme: “The heroic story of the settlers who brought the American ideal west.” In a country preoccupied with presidential candidates preaching extreme liberalism and even unabashed socialism comes America’s greatest living historian, David McCullough, with a new and needed book.
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