1776

The American rebels' victory over Britain seems so inevitable now, 200 years in the future and after years of mildly patriotic schooling. This book makes it brutally clear that not only was the American victory NOT inevitable, it in fact was a goddamn miracle that the cause lasted beyond the first year.

I was told that David McCullough made a great deal of money with his popular histories. I'm beginning to see how that might be possible. This history is as like a realist historical novel with many characters as a history can be. As the events transpire, their effect is shown via quotations from many original sources, mostly personal letters and diaries. The difference between this history and, e.g., David Sharra's historical novel "Rise to Rebellion" is that McCullough is never the omniscient narrator; he always describes the events from the outside, as a historian, and he supports his every claim with a mountain of end notes. A further source of McCullough's appeal may be his lack of overt politicizing. He tells the story without show more including any remarks on what he thinks we should infer about contemporary events from his tale. The book lacks any preface or foreword; evidently McCullough thought that there need be no justification for writing a book about this time other than its inherent interest. And finally the prose is lively and full of interesting detail without any glaring malapropisms. Recommended. show less

1776 is exactly what it says on the cover; a history about the crucial year of the American revolution. 1776 is focus on George Washington and the men around him, following the patriots from their triumph at the siege of Boston, to the bloody expulsion from New York, and the hard trek across New Jersey which ended with the sudden battles of Trenton and Princeton (America-we'll murder you in your sleep on Christmas!).

McCollough, as dean of the American historians, has a keen and sensitive eye in drawing narrative and character from the archives. He finds Washington and his colleagues in a moment of transition, unsure in a task no one alive has ever attempted, failing at time, but always learning from their mistakes and buoyed by the show more common purpose of independence. There's a lot more to be said about the revolution, but we're lucky to have a book by one of the master historians on this moment. show less

A British ship’s surgeon who used the privileges of his profession to visit some of the rebel camps, described roads crowded with carts and wagons hauling mostly provisions, but also, he noted, inordinate quantities of rum — “for without New England rum, a New England army could not be kept together.” The rebels, he calculated, were consuming a bottle a day per man.

One late night foray led me to finish this book hours after beginning. It is no great shame, but it was the musical Hamilton which inclined me to approach the work. My days of matriculation were often obscured to such narrative histories. 25 years ago at university I was an aspiring Marxist and I saw the American Revolution as between two slave owning factions of the show more same burning house. I now regard that approach as painfully naïve.

1776 chronicles more or less of the famed year in American Independence when Washington's cobbled forces stumbled about. The vastly superior Royal forces didn't appear to appreciate the significance of the stakes. Few do in the moment. show less

The American Revolution is not a time period with which I am familiar. I grew up in Sweden and we just did not study it. I have studied American history after the Civil War when I was in the states but the period before...nothing. All the names and places are familiar but to me the American Revolution was summarised like this in my brain: "Washington was the general. The other dudes sat in Philadelphia. The Americans won. Bye bye British! Yeah Declaration of Independence. The End". Yeah, I needed more. Someone suggested that David McCulloughs books were perfect and I have to say they were right.

He finds a good balance between the military history (NOT my thing) and a narrative around the important characters in the war. They are all show more presented in a sympathetic manner, even King George III. I found the geography easy to follow along in. He to time to explain the distances and the difficulties involved in getting to the different battlefields. I liked how he vowe in personal recollections of those that where there, down to the lowliest soldier. It made it feel like a history of people not just jerking from battlefield to battlefield.

The book was read by the author and for me this added a more personal touch to the readings. You could tell that he knew the material well and was invested in telling it well. I felt like he was reading it to me. Not some far off mass of people who knew about the material already.

I will want to listen to it again because there are bits that I have missed because something happened and I didn't hear it properly or it just didn't make sense. But that is no hardship at all. show less

I read David McCullough's John Adams last year and really liked it. But I must confess, I enjoyed this one more. Since 1776 focuses on one seminal year in American history, it was a shorter book. The action was so thick that it read like a novel. I had thought I was familiar with our nation's beginnings. I knew George Washington was revered as a great general, but I didn't really understand why. This book demonstrates why Washington was a great general, in spite of his flaws.

The people of America were really no more united then than they are now. What they did have was a vision of what could be, and enough of them were willing to suffer hardship and deprivation that it became reality. McCullough doesn't gloss over the uncomfortable show more bits. He doesn't turn the British and Hessians into monsters and he doesn't make the Americans look like noble saints. What he does do is present a balanced, researched portrait of an extraordinary time and place that changed the course of world history. And that's no small feat. show less

McCullough has long been one of my very favorite authors of historical non-fiction/biography: his John Adams would probably be on my all-time top ten list, were I ever forced to make such a painful choice. Once again with 1776, he does not disappoint. I have to be honest, the tale wasn't what I expected - it was better. This is the story not of independence resolutions and hot Philadelphia meeting rooms, but of the trials and tribulations of a ragtag band of patriots, headed by an all-too-mortal Virginia gentleman farmer.

Reading 1776 was, at times, like riding a roller coaster (except for the obvious difference that I did not feel in constant danger of throwing up while reading the book). From the siege of Boston to the retreat from New show more York to the triumphs at Trenton and Princeton, McCullough's reader is transported back to the headquarters of General Washington, back to the makeshift tents of the young men who stood with him through the darkest days ... and who marched with him through the darkest nights - in retreat and in attack.

The story of this vital year, as seen from the perspective of Washington, his generals, his aides, and his rank-and-file soldiers (McCullough expertly weaves into his narrative diary accounts and letters from soldiers whose names we've never seen before) is much different from the typical "Founding Fathers" business we're used to. John Adams, John Hancock, Ben Franklin and the rest of the Continental Congress make only cameo appearances. The only tales of entertainment and dinner parties come from the British in occupied Boston and and New York. McCullough's work instead is focused on "the times that try men's souls," and much of the book is little short of utterly depressing.

Above all, though, this book is the story of perseverance. Of a vision, of brave men doing what they saw as their duty, to the best of their abilities. Of courage. Of honor. They fought, those valiant few, so that we all can spend our hours going back and forth with each other about stem cells, and stonewalling; so that we can debate what it means to be a country that values the great ideals of freedom, and liberty, and the rule of law.

The lessons of 1776 (both book and year) are as important today as they have ever been. show less