In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt addressed the American Historical Association to call for American history to be written as compelling stories of literary quality. Editor Allen Johnson of Yale University responded by publishing the Chronicles of America series: 50 succinct volumes on regional and thematic American history. These books, intended for secondary schools and college students, are expository works of American history composed by competent historians in the 1920's, well before the special pleading and upending of social norms typical of histories after 1970. This series is focused on the mainstream of American political life and leadership from its initial volumes on Native Americans and European colonists to its final volumes on Woodrow Wilson, Canada, and the Hispanic Republics to our South.

The Old Northwest by Frederic Ogg is the story of the settlement of the Ohio Valley and the territory of the Northwest Ordinance, including Michigan. The work covers the conspiracies of Pontiac, Tecumseh, and Black Hawk, the drama of the War of 1812 in the West, the folkways of the mid-west pioneers, and the Anglo-American leaders of the region, including William Henry Harrison and "Mad Anthony" Wayne. The work includes a useful bibliography by the author.

This work has been formatted and reprinted for Tall Men Books. It is not a facsimile reprint.