Using the voluminous Draper manuscripts and other first-hand accounts of the winning of the West, Eckert has followed the frontiersmen from the first wondering exploration of the Ohio valley in the 1770's to the crushing of the final Indian resistance in the War of 1812. ["The Frontiersmen"] is a panoramic frontier history, crammed with incident….

Mr. Eckert makes one feel the lure of this frontier, though his writing can lapse into remarks like "The aura of fear in Springfield and the surrounding country bloomed again."

In this book, the frontier contest is recorded in a day-to-day account, sometimes a dozen lines to a day, occasionally a dozen pages. Moving within a few pages from Blackhoof to Nathaniel Massie, to Simon Girty, to General Harmar, to Tecumseh, to Kenton, the narrative is too often abruptly broken. Though it keeps events in order and shows the struggle from many angles, variety...