America and Britain at War. 1776: Amazon.de: David McCullough, David MacCullough: Englische Bücher

Amazon.com

Esteemed historian David McCullough covers the military side of the momentous year of 1776 with characteristic insight and a gripping narrative, adding new scholarship and a fresh perspective to the beginning of the American Revolution. It was a turbulent and confusing time. As British and American politicians struggled to reach a compromise, events on the ground escalated until war was inevitable. McCullough writes vividly about the dismal conditions that troops on both sides had to endure, including an unusually harsh winter, and the role that luck and the whims of the weather played in helping the colonial forces hold off the world's greatest army. He also effectively explores the importance of motivation and troop morale--a tie was as good as a win to the Americans, while anything short of overwhelming victory was disheartening to the British, who expected a swift end to the war. The redcoat retreat from Boston, for example, was particularly humiliating for the British, while the minor American victory at Trenton was magnified despite its limited strategic importance.

Some of the strongest passages in 1776 are the revealing and well-rounded portraits of the Georges on both sides of the Atlantic. King George III, so often portrayed as a bumbling, arrogant fool, is given a more thoughtful treatment by McCullough, who shows that the king considered the colonists to be petulant subjects without legitimate grievances--an attitude that led him to underestimate the will and capabilities of the Americans. At times he seems shocked that war was even necessary. The great Washington lives up to his considerable reputation in these pages, and McCullough relies on private correspondence to balance the man and the myth, revealing how deeply concerned Washington was about the Americans' chances for victory, despite his public optimism. Perhaps more than any other man, he realized how fortunate they were to merely survive the year, and he willingly lays the responsibility for their good fortune in the hands of God rather than his own. Enthralling and superbly written, 1776 is the work of a master historian. --Shawn Carkonen

The Other 1776
With his riveting, enlightening accounts of subjects from Johnstown Flood to John Adams, David McCullough has become the historian that Americans look to most to tell us our own story. In his Amazon.com interview, McCullough explains why he turned in his new book from the political battles of the Revolution to the battles on the ground, and he marvels at some of his favorite young citizen soldiers who fought alongside the remarkable General Washington.

The Essential David McCullough

John Adams
Truman
Mornings on Horseback

The Path Between the Seas
The Great Bridge
The Johnstown Flood

More Reading on the Revolution

The Great Improvisation by Stacy Schiff
Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer
His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis

Washington's General by Terry Golway
Iron Tears by Stanley Weintraub
Victory at Yorktown by Richard M. Ketchum

-- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

From Booklist

*Starred Review* As the year 1776 began, hostilities between American forces and British regulars, which had begun the preceding April, continued. Yet a full-fledged war for independence was not inevitable. In Parliament, such conciliators as Edmund Burke and Charles Fox attacked government policy as needlessly provocative. In America, many members of the Continental Congress also sought compromise. But the rush of events, especially the ongoing bloodletting, soon drowned out calls for moderation. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian McCullough has provided a stirring account of the year that began with the humiliating British abandonment of Boston and ended with Washington's small but symbolically important triumph at Trenton. In between, McCullough recounts the American disaster at Brooklyn and the demoralizing retreat across New Jersey. He is a gifted writer who enriches his story with ample use of the diaries and correspondence of ordinary soldiers on both sides. Yet it is his portrayals of the two principal antagonists in this struggle that makes this account both engrossing and poignant. George Washington, as expected, is seen here as iron-willed and ambitious, but McCullough also shows him as prone to self-doubt and occasionally in despair over the string of setbacks. George III, contrary to American prejudice and propaganda, is honorable, reasonably intelligent, and sincerely outraged at the ingratitude of some of his American subjects. This is a first-rate historical account, which should appeal to both scholars and general readers. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

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1776 Ganz nett, aber keine Offenbarung. 9. Februar 2010

Von Longhunter

Format:Taschenbuch

Vorab: Ich bin ein richtiger Fan von Literatur zum Amerikanischen Unabhängigkeitskrieg und habe auch McCulloughs Buch "John Adams" gelesen und fand es richtig gut.

1776 ist gut geschrieben und man kann dem roten Faden des Autors ganz gut folgen, aber mir mir erschließt sich nicht so ganz der Sinn dieses Buches, da es keine bahnbrechend neuen Erkenntnisse zum Besten gibt.

Es gibt genügend Literatur, die die Zeitspanne, die hier behandelt wird, wieder und wieder beleuchtet hat. Ein zweites Mal würde ich mir das Buch nicht holen.

Wegen der fehlenden "Aha - Erlebnisse" gibt es von mir nur 3 Sterne.

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1776 and all that... 21. Februar 2006

Von FrKurt Messick

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

David McCullough is fast becoming the most popular historian of Americana in the country. His books are the sort that run counter to publishing conventional wisdom - he regularly puts out large, thick 'tomes' on figures, places or events that might not be the best known in American history, yet because of his good research, eye for discernment and engaging writing style, the reading public continues to purchase and read the texts, eagerly waiting for more.

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.

A gripping narrative 11. August 2005

Von Bobby Ferguson

1776 is a blessing. This revealing story is a blessing to me. I now have a better understanding of the American Revolution. It is perhaps the best-researched history book that I have read on this subject. I particularly liked the depth the author gave to the major characters and even some of the minor ones as well. I particularly liked the way David McCullough did a marvelous job telling his story through history.

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.

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The title of this book is a little misleading. The material actually covers from the beginning of the Continental army in defending Boston during 1775 after Bunker Hill, Lexington... Lesen Sie weiter...

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1776 and all that...

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I watch the movie "1776" every 4th of July and so when I read David McCullough's history of the same title I was struck by how they were complimentary in so many ways. Lesen Sie weiter...

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America and Britain at War. 1776 [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

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