America's beloved and distinguished historian presents, in a book of
breathtaking excitement, drama, and narrative force, the stirring story
of the year of our nation's birth, 1776, interweaving, on both sides of
the Atlantic, the actions and decisions that led Great Britain to
undertake a war against her rebellious colonial subjects and that placed
America's survival in the hands of George Washington.
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.
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.
