The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America

Scott Weidensaul. In this comprehensive chronicle, Pulitzer Prize winner Weidensaul sheds light on the shadowy world of pre-Revolutionary America, when the unconscionable chicanery of white explorers and settlers was met with horrific vengeance by the established Indian tribes. As straight history, it can be dry stuff, as the author's arsenal of facts tends to slow him down. Nonetheless, Weidensaul weaves together an impressive number of true stories, bolstered by first and secondhand records and journals. Students of early American history will be the most attentive audience for the book, but any reader who picks it up will get a very real picture of what it was like to live and die in the New World.--Kirkus (Check Catalog)