1776 Paperback - 2006

In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence -- when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.

Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King's men, the British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known.

At the center of the drama, with Washington, are two young American patriots, who, at first, knew no more of war than what they had read in books -- Nathanael Greene, a Quaker who was made a general at thirty-three, and Henry Knox, a twenty-five-year-old bookseller who had the preposterous idea of hauling the guns of Fort Ticonderoga overland to Boston in the dead of winter.

But it is the American commander-in-chief who stands foremost -- Washington, who had never before led an army in battle. Written as a companion work to his celebrated biography of John Adams, David McCullough's 1776 is another landmark in the literature of American history.

Details

• Title 1776
• Author David McCullough
• Binding Paperback
• Edition [ Edition: first
• Pages 400
• Volumes 1
• Language ENG
• Publisher Simon & Schuster, New York
• Date 2006-07-04
• Features Bibliography, Index, Maps, Table of Contents
• ISBN 9780743226721 / 0743226720
• Weight 1.25 lbs (0.57 kg)
• Dimensions 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 in (23.11 x 15.49 x 2.79 cm)
• Reading level 1300
• Themes
  • Chronological Period: 18th Century
• Library of Congress subjects United States - History - Revolution,
• Library of Congress Catalog Number 2006287092
• Dewey Decimal Code 973.3

"Should be required reading in living rooms from coast to coast." -- Dorman T. Shindler, The Denver Post