1776: America and Britain at War (Taschenbuch)

Therefore, how could McCullough's text on 1776 not be a success? Divided into three major sections, the story of the year 1776 is perhaps different in this retelling than typical story because McCullough confines himself to this one, fateful year, and does the telling without a great deal of back-interpretation that casts a better glow. When things look bleak, they are bleak - indeed, if one did not know the subsequent history, one might think at the end of this text that the American forces were destined to lose.

In some ways, this year could be entitled 'The Tale of Two Georges', and in his presentation of both Washington and King George, McCullough is careful to separate fact from later legendary accretions. The king was not the villain of later American schoolchildren's lore, and George Washington, while heroic, was still a human being faced with uncertain times and fallible decisions. However, it is in other characters that McCullough's talents really shine. One such figure is Nathanael Greene, the youngest general in the American army (McCullough said in an interview with Charlie Rose that Greene is perhaps his favourite character in this book).

The course of the narrative takes the reader back and forth from England to America, and looks both at the political and military issues in both places. Key political leaders in Britain and America, as well as direct players in the field in the American cities and countryside, are combined with grace and skill.

The central event of the year, certainly from the American standpoint, is the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Independence, itself really a letter to King George enumerating grievances and making statements of intention. McCullough does not dwell on this event and its particulars as much as he describes the events of the people in reaction to this declaration - that spirits were high and heady, but that the inexorable march of military events kept the residents of the colonies-now-a-country occupied with more urgent matters than celebration.

McCullough's text is supplemented by colour plates, pictures, and maps showing the portraits of the principal figures, the cities and colony layouts. This is a wonderful book, with particular events well selected and well connected (every history is necessarily a piece of selective reconstruction). It gives a real sense of the situation for the whole of the people in this most fateful of years for the new American nation.

"1776" actually covers a sixteen month period, beginning on October 26, 1775 when King George III went before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and ending essentially with the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777. In between McCullough divides the military history of the war into three periods: "The Siege" of Boston, the "Fateful Summer" trying to defend New York City, and "The Long Retreat" that found the American army retreating to Pennsylvania before crossing the Delaware on Christmas Eve to surprise the Hessians at Trenton. This military history begins with the stalemate at Boston and then moves to the string of defeats at Brooklyn, Kips Bay, White Plains, and Fort Washington, where the key commonality is a pair of brilliant maneuvers at night, one to put cannons on the heights of Dorchester and the other to evacuate the army to New York. This sets up the most demonstrative successes by such endeavors with the pair of victories in New Jersey that ended the year favorably for the cause of Independency.

Several things stand out as I think about what I learned from this book. First, I realize that my knowledge of the American Revolution does not have the same liner clarity as what I know about the Civil War. Even having read Jeff Sharaa's two books covering this period I still had it in my head that the attack on Trenton came after the winter at Valley Forge, when obviously that is not the case. Second, I was struck by the happenstance of weather that worked to the advantage of the Americans and against the interests of the British on more than one occasion during this period of time. When both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration the nation say in the coincidence the hand of God. It would be difficult not to reach the same conclusion given the fortuitous fog, massive thunderstorm, and ill blown wind that McCullough details in his narrative.

Third, the disdain the British and Hessian troops had for the Americans is made palatable. Not only did the Colonials have the nasty habit of shooting from behind rocks and trees, but given an untenable situation they would rather retreat to fight another day then stay and die. McCullough provides details on the American "rabble" because he makes good use of the letters and diaries of common men as well as those put down by the Founding Fathers. Fourth and probably most important is how McCullough extends the central importance of commitment, what Washington called "perseverance," to the cause beyond the commanding general to other patriots, most notably Henry Knox and Nathaniel Greene. Still, in the end "1776" is an appreciation for Washington as "the deliverer of his own country" (the quoted prediction was made by Greene). McCullough amplifies their perseverance by contrasting it with the suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement and fear that these men had to contend with in 1776.

Consequently, McCullough ends his book with a grandiose example of litotes that serves as his ultimate thesis statement: "Especially for those who had been with Washington and who knew what a close call it was at the beginning--how often circumstance, storms, contrary winds, the oddities or strengths of individual character had made the difference--the outcome seemed little short of a miracle." The advantage of McCullough saving his understated thesis for the final line of the book is that he is well aware by that by the time we reach it he has already proven his point.

Reading McCullough is different from reading most historians because his voice is so ingrained from his narration of the Ken Burns documentarian on "The Civil War" and other works. Having the on-line audio excerpt to listen to McCullough reading from pages 6-7 is unnecessary because when I read the book I was always hearing his dulcet tones. Almost the last 100 pages of the book are devoted to McCullough's Acknowledgments, Source Notes, Bibliography, and Index, so anyone interested in purusing particular subjects in more detail will have starting points. I know that "1776" is supposed to be a companion volume to McCullough's Pulitzer Prize winning look at "John Adams," but I can assure you that you can enjoy one before the other and there is no clear argument to be made for either book as a starting point.

Other recently read books that treat a revolutionary era through narratives and dialogues through history are UNION MOUJIK,THE EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE QUICK BOOK,HIS EXCELLENCY; GEORGE WASHINGTON.I learned lots of details from 1776 and appreciated that fateful year for the US and England.