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.
0 有用 mango 2019-05-29 10:22:14
Midwest拓荒史,主要围绕首批拓荒者在Marietta的活动;叙述太杂、细节直接引用太多略乏味;若从土著印第安人角度来看这是段意义和感受完全不同的历史。
0 有用 munford 2019-09-30 13:07:15
McCullough 写的主题总是围绕美国精神主旋律,选题聪明保证不愁销量。
0 有用 许三 2019-12-17 07:35:13
An important part of American history between the Revolution and the civil war. The Indian removal act was glossed over through Dickens!
0 有用 拇指儿 2020-07-13 17:31:56
关于Northwest Ordinances,关于美国历史上独立战争后如何“西进”,俄亥俄河沿岸城镇的兴起,虽不似建国先贤的宏大叙事。但是Cutler 和Putnam这样的名字,会留在美国的历史上。 作者David McCullough曾获总统自由勋章,两度获得国家图书奖。
0 有用 拇指儿 2020-07-13 17:31:56
关于Northwest Ordinances,关于美国历史上独立战争后如何“西进”,俄亥俄河沿岸城镇的兴起,虽不似建国先贤的宏大叙事。但是Cutler 和Putnam这样的名字,会留在美国的历史上。 作者David McCullough曾获总统自由勋章,两度获得国家图书奖。
0 有用 许三 2019-12-17 07:35:13
An important part of American history between the Revolution and the civil war. The Indian removal act was glossed over through Dickens!
0 有用 munford 2019-09-30 13:07:15
McCullough 写的主题总是围绕美国精神主旋律,选题聪明保证不愁销量。
0 有用 mango 2019-05-29 10:22:14
Midwest拓荒史,主要围绕首批拓荒者在Marietta的活动;叙述太杂、细节直接引用太多略乏味;若从土著印第安人角度来看这是段意义和感受完全不同的历史。