The Pioneers by David McCullough

When it comes to historians, they are more likely to be long winded than not, and David McCullough is no exception.  My husband recently pulled his Truman biography off the shelf and was about to send it to a Little Library when I vetoed that destination because I had not read it. Then I lifted it and thought maybe I should get it on the Kindle.  It was almost unliftable if you think about it as a book that you would need to hold with your wrists.  it is more bench pressing weight than dainty read in bed weight.
So the length of this (a mere 250 pages if you skip all the notes and such at the end), is inviting in and of itself.  The story is of the first settlers to the Ohio Territory, where there was the tenet of no slavery, and what befell them.  As with all tales about first arrivals, there are a number of obstacles to be overcome, and truthfully, the book starts off a bit on the slow side.  The story starts to come together, though, and is a very interesting story of the first wave of westward settler, these being in the early aftermath of the Revolutionary War, and setting the stage for those who followed.  Whether you are from the Midwest or not, it is a good story told by a master story teller.