1776
by
David McCullough
Table of Contents
- ISBN:
-
0743226712
- Format:
-
Hardcover, 386 pages
- Publish Date:
-
May, 2005
- Publisher:
-
27
- Other Format(s):
-
Audiobook
There's a reason this latest telling of an oft-told tale became such a bestseller; in just under 300 pages, David McCullough manages to chronicle with great verve and immediacy the sweeping story of that fateful year of the title. Rather than focus on events in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was being drafted, 1776 sticks mainly to the military events, charting the triumphs and travails of the nascent Continental Army, from its successful siege of Boston to its near-destruction in New York to its ending the year with one of the most audacious, and profoundly successful Hail Mary Passes in history, the crossing of the Delaware and the Battle of Trenton. Of course, the man at center stage through this stirring saga is George Washington, and McCullough does an admirable job of showing just how monumental were the odds stacked against this natural leader. His indomitable will and his innate genius are vividly conveyed. Washington benefited from a pair of loyal and talented staff officers, Henry Knox and Nathanael Greene, whose important contributions to the struggle are given their just due. As one reads this fast-paced narrative, a few points recur throughout: that the birth of America was by no means a foregone conclusion, that the cause?s fate hung by a tenuous thread on more than one occasion, that the Revolution so easily might have been crushed any number of times, and that the barefoot, bedraggled amateurs who fought, bled, and died for this new country are worth remembering. Always. This is popular history at its best.
Revisiting a pivotal year in the American Revolution is an ideal way for the officer to reconnect to our military heritage; it begins here. One can imagine what it must have been like for an old Continental Army soldier, surviving those epochal events, years later being able to say, "I was there. With Washington." It is history that stirs the patriotic soul, and reminds the modern member of America's military of the priceless legacy we hold.