Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39704 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09-01
• Released on: 1996-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 880 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The Ohio River, a principal route for pioneers pushing westward along its 981-mile course from Pennsylvania through Kentucky and Indiana to Illinois, was the scene of fierce battles among warring Indian tribes?Shawnee, Miami, Cherokee, Iroquois, etc.?and between Native Americans and white settlers. Tapping journals, letters, diaries and government memoranda from 1768 to 1799, and fleshing out his panoramic chronicle with reconstructed dialogue adapted from primary sources, historian-novelist Eckert has fashioned an epic narrative history of the struggle for dominance of the Ohio River Valley that makes compelling reading. The lives of notable pioneer families (Zanes, Bradys, Wetzels), incursions of traders, explorers, colonists, adventurers and the historic exploits of George Washington, Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark and others intersect. A biographer of Shawnee chief Tecumseh (A Sorrow in Our Heart), Eckert emphasizes the sudden, overwhelming movement of whites into Native American lands and the Indians' initial restraint and tolerance, followed by furious raids, wars and expulsions. Maps.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Eckert (A Sorrow in Our Heart, LJ 2/15/92) stands on an uncommon ground between academic and popular writers. His use of the "hidden dialog" as a means of writing history had been termed "documentary fiction." Here, he takes on the long and varied history of the Ohio River valley, engendered by indigenous Americans and settlers from European powers?French, Dutch, English, and Spanish. Eckert introduces a considerable number of Indians into the Ohio environment, utilizing a variety of fascinating primary resources to tell the history of the region and its people from 1768 to 1795. The final product, readable and rich in history, nevertheless will create problems for the historian and concern for the general reader. Those looking for a thorough history of the valley will be disappointed, and book selectors need to be aware of the type of history this book represents.?Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., Ala.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In the middle of the eighteenth century, English colonists began drifting into the trans-Allegheny valley of the Ohio River, the first spasmodic thrust of the westward movement. They inserted themselves into a volatile milieu; Frenchmen and a seemingly endless variety of Native American tribes traded, competed, and frequently warred with one another. To paraphrase Trotsky, those looking for tranquillity picked the wrong place and time to be born. Eckert's gift for connecting the lives of scores of obscure characters with a broader context provides the same masterful mix that made Evan Connell's Son of the Morning Star a delight for both the scholar and the general reader. Although the famous (e.g., Mad Anthony Wayne) and the near famous (e.g., Arthur St. Clair) are given their due, Eckert is at his best in chronicling the lives and fates of ordinary people who ferociously struggled with nature and with one another to hold their piece of ground. An eloquent and often heartrending portrayal of a fascinating and pivotal epoch in American history. Jay Freeman

Customer Reviews

Bloody Frontier
Regardless of the Indian slaughters people kept moving west. They were not innocent in their fight to populate the frontier west of the Alleghenies. Indians took scalps and sold them to the British. The settlers given the opportunity also took Indian scalps for revenge. It took a long time before the people east of the Alleghenies to become concerned about the troubles in the west. In this book "Grity" is a troubled frontiersman rather than a monster. I agree with the author's viewpoint. By Ruth Thompson Author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"

TDaBR: a Zane's perspective
I bought this book about two years ago. The last book by Eckert I had read before this was "The HAB Theory", published in the 70's. Overall, I enjoyed the book; however, much of what Eckert wrote about my family, the Zane Family, is innacurate. That's because he took what Zane Gray--a distant cousin--wrote in "Betty Zane" as gospel. The first Zane was NOT a Danish nobleman; he was an Englishman named Robert Zane, who came here in 1687 with William Penn (the Zanes were originally Quakers.) Robert's grandson, William, was kicked out of the Society of Friends for marrying a non-Quaker. William's children were Silas, Ebenezer, Jonathan, Andrew, Isaac, and Elizabeth. These are the 'famous' Zanes. Ebenezer founded Wheeling WV; Zanesville OH is named after him. Isaac, my direct ancestor, was raised by the Wyandots and married Myeerah, daughter of Chief Tarhe. Elizabeth--Betty--saved Fort Henry (Wheeling) in the last battle of the Revolution (NOT Ebenezer's wife, Elizabeth, as Eckert wrote). Many present day Zanes, including me, wrote to Eckert to protest what was written (I, personally, am miffed he made no mention of Isaac and Myeerah). He promised to make all corrections when the book comes out in another edition.

The best of both worlds!
Eckert combines a great veracity for historical accuracy with a spellbinding ability to weave too-often dry history into a narrative form. This is a wonderful book, full of history and adventure--so much better than anything Hollywood could come up with!