book review of 1776

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1776 (Book Review)

Reviewed by Harris J. Andrews By David McCullough Simon and Schuster, 2005

David McCullough’s 1776 is one of those well-crafted popular histories that is certain to feature prominently on every history buff’s reading list this summer. The Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer brings all of his formidable writing skills into play, recounting the tumultuous military campaigns of a year that saw the fortunes of George Washington’s fledgling Continental Army—and with it those of the new American republic—rise and fall: from a brilliant and unexpected success at the siege of Boston through failure and defeat in the fighting around New York and New Jersey to redemption in the freezing streets of Trenton.

McCullough’s book is pure, traditional narrative history. He bases much of his account on the actions and experiences of the great leaders: Patriot Generals George Washington, Nathanael Greene, Henry Knox and their British opponents the Howe brothers, Sir Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis.

But McCullough also includes a chorus of spear-carriers—common soldiers, camp followers, civilian bystanders and politicians. The author employs a poet’s ear in his selection of wonderful quotes drawn from more than 50 diaries, memoirs and collections of correspondence to support his own lively narration. McCullough’s primary focus, however, remains firmly fixed on George Washington’s conduct of military operations and his constant determination to create a well-organized, professional fighting force out of the dispirited, sick and ragged volunteers and militiamen who formed his army.

As enjoyable as the book is, 1776 recounts an oft-told tale, one that has attracted the attention of many historians over the years. While McCullough ably pulls together masses of information, 1776 does not offer much that is new, nor does it offer fresh insights into the lives and character of the primary actors.

McCullough’s descriptions of military operations are fairly clear but suffer from a lack of the informative maps required for military historiography. The inclusion of reproductions of three period maps in the illustration sections does not adequately fill the void.

1776 remains a riveting and moving tale of the year that saw the proclamation of American independence and the descent of the full might of the British empire to crush it. Overall, David McCullough tells a powerful and well-crafted story that is worth the read.

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Book review: “1776” by David McCullough

Give David McCullough credit.

After a hugely successful career as a historian, he set out, in his late 60s, to write a book that was a far cry from his earlier bestsellers.

McCullough had made a name for himself by writing big books that told big stories —- stories about monumental projects, such as the Panama Canal and the Brooklyn Bridge, and about major historical figures, such as John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman. These averaged about 700 pages each although his book on Truman was more than 1,100 pages long.

With 1776 , though, he was attempting something that, for him, was new. First of all, he didn’t try to tell the story of the entire Revolutionary War, just a single year, the first full year of the eight-year conflict. Then, he narrowed his focus even more to look only at the ragtag army under George Washington.

Finally — and this is the greatest difference — he rooted his book in the words of a multitude of eyewitnesses on both sides of the battles. Rather than provide a sweeping saga, McCullough produced an intimate look at the experiences of the soldiers and others who lived through that year.

The resulting book, published in 2005, has just under 300 pages of text, or about half as many as most of his earlier works.

With so many voices, 1776 doesn’t have the breadth and momentum of McCullough’s larger works. Yet, through those voices, the reader gains a penetrating and often visceral understanding of life in the midst of a rebellion that was far from assured of success.

Here is a quick look at the war through some of those voices:

The scene on the recently seized Dorchester Heights as the American troops awaited an expected attack from the British soldiers in Boston, as described by Dr. James Thatcher : “Each man knows his place, and is resolute to execute his duty. Our breastworks are strengthened, and among the means of defense are a great number of barrels, filled with stone and sand, arranged in front of our works, which are to be put in motion and made to roll down the hill, to break the ranks and legs of assailants as they advance.”

New Yorkers, as described by the Boston-born Henry Knox : “The people — why the people are magnificent, in their carriages which are numerous, in their house furniture, which is fine, in their pride and conceit, which are inimitable, in their profaneness, which is intolerable, in the want of principle, which is prevalent, in their Tory-ism, which is insufferable.”

The bombardment of Chatterton’s Hill in New York by British warships, as described by a Pennsylvania soldier : “The air and hills smoked and echoed terribly. The fences and wall were knocked down and torn to pieces, and men’s legs, arms, and bodies mingled with cannon and grapeshot all round us.”

The assault by British troops on an American stronghold in New York, as described by John Adlum, a laconic 17-year-old private from Pennsylvania : “As I was a good deal fatigued and the firing had in a great measure ceased, I walked to the fort very leisurely. Before I was near the fort the British began to fire at it with a field piece with round shot, at the men who were standing in huddles between the fort and the lines within the abbitis that was round the fort. When I arrived at this work, I sat upon it looking at the enemy who were firing at us with the field piece and not more than four hundred yards of us, or from where I was then sitting, when at length a ball took off a part of two men’s head and wounded another. I went into the fort.”

The march of Washington’s troops to make a surprise Christmas Day attack on Hessians holding the town of Trenton, New Jersey, as described by John Greenwood, a 16-year-old fifer from Boston : “I recollect very well that at one time, when we halted on the road, I sat down on the stump of a tree and was so be-numbed with cold that I wanted to go to sleep. Had I been passed unnoticed, I should have frozen to death without knowing it [as two other American soldiers did that night].”

George Washington’s words on December 29, 1776, when, “in a most affectionate manner,” he was asking soldiers to re-enlist : “My brave fellows, you have done all I asked you to do, and more than could be reasonably expected, but your country is at stake, your wives, your houses, and all that you hold dear. You have worn yourselves out with fatigues and hardships, but we know not how to spare you.”

George Washington, leading troops into battle on January 1, 1777, against the British in Princeton, New Jersey, as described by one young American officer : “I shall never forget what I felt…when I saw him brace all the dangers of the field and his important life hanging as it were by a single hair with a thousand deaths flying around him.”

McCullough doesn’t present these voices in isolation, as I have done above. He sets them within his clear, exuberant and sharp-eyed prose.

In contrast to his other books, he stands back a bit here, but he’s not absent. He fills in the gaps between the voices and helps the reader understand the context of what is being said and what is being described.

Here are some examples:

Familiar with adversity — the American soldiers:

It was an army of men accustomed to hard work, hard work being the common lot. They were familiar with adversity and making do in a harsh climate. Resourceful, handy with tools, they could drive a yoke of oxen or “hove up” a stump or tie a proper knot as readily as butcher a hog or mend a pair of shoes. They knew from experience, most of them, the hardships and setbacks of life. Preparing for the worst was second nature. Rare was the man who had never seen someone die.

Vile in the extreme — unsanitary conditions in the American camps

One soldier recorded seeing a dead body so covered with lice that it was thought the lice alone had killed the man…As it was, open latrines were the worst of it, but there was also as recorded in one orderly book, a “great neglect of people repairing to the necessaries.” Instead, they voided “excrement about the fields perniciously.” The smell of many camps was vile in the extreme

Die of the sound — the British bombardment of York Island, now known as Manhattan Island:

It continued without stop for a full hour, a total of nearly eighty guns pounding point-blank at the shore and shrouding the river with acrid smoke. Joseph Martin, who had made a “frog’s leap” in a ditch, thought he might die of the sound alone.

Never forget — the year as experienced by American soldiers:

The year 1776, celebrated as the birth year of the nation and for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was for those who carried the fight for independence forward a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear, as they would never forget, but also of phenomenal courage and bedrock devotion to country, and that, too, they would never forget.

So much has been written over the past two centuries, but David McCullough’s 1776 provides a needed new perspective to the conflict that gave birth to the United States.

Patrick T. Reardon 10.2.14

Written by : Patrick T. Reardon

For more than three decades Patrick T. Reardon was an urban affairs writer, a feature writer, a columnist, and an editor for the Chicago Tribune. In 2000 he was one of a team of 50 staff members who won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Now a freelance writer and poet, he has contributed chapters to several books and is the author of Faith Stripped to Its Essence. His website is https://patricktreardon.com/.

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1776, by David McCullough, represents a sea change in the work of one of America's truly extraordinary historians. The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and twice National Book Award recipient has traditionally chronicled epic times and critical historical events on a grand scale. McCullough told of the lives of three great American Presidents: John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman. He recounted the massive manpower efforts and political will required to construct the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal. The grand epoch of life was the field that McCullough endeavored to cultivate. A McCullough historical tome was a massive historical effort whose length often went unnoticed because the quality of writing made the pages turn with ease and rapidity.

While dealing with a subject of no less historical significance than his previous works, 1776 is a far more focused and limited historical study. As the title indicates, this book covers one year, albeit a critical year, in the conflict between the world's greatest power, Great Britain, and the freedom-seeking colonies that would ultimately succeed England as the lodestar of democracy in the world. Every American knows what occurred on July 4, 1776, the midpoint of McCullough's magnificent chronology. 1776, in an on-the-scene, news reporting style, chronicles the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the events immediately following the Philadelphia signing in vivid, mesmerizing detail. McCullough has the ability to bring history to life. In an era when people learn their history from sources other than books, our nation owes a writer such as McCullough a debt of gratitude.

The year-long narrative actually begins in October of 1775, on the streets of London during the pageantry and splendor of the opening of Parliament. George III, King of England, is scheduled to address that body on the thorny issue of war in America. The debate that would occur on that fall day in the House of Commons carries with it an eerie similarity to speeches and debates that have occurred in other chambers, at other important times in history. Even today, similar speeches and similar arguments surrounding events in Iraq can be heard in the House of Commons. The King made clear his commitment to defeat the rebellion. He would commit the necessary soldiers, navy and even foreign mercenaries to the effort. "Among the many unavoidable ill consequences of this rebellion," he concluded, "none affects me more sensibly than the extraordinary burden which it must create to my faithful servants."

Others did not agree. John Wilkes, Lord Mayor of London, rose to speak in opposition. The battle with the colonies was "unjust…fatal and ruinous to our country," he declared. "Should we not succeed… we shall be considered as the most implacable enemies, an eternal separation will follow, and the grandeur of the British Empire pass away." On behalf of the King and the government Lord North concluded the debate. The policy in place, he argued, "will show we are in earnest, that we are prepared to punish, but are nevertheless ready to forgive. This is in my opinion, the most likely means of producing an honorable reconciliation."

How did the most powerful nation in the world find itself defeated by a Continental Army that was undermanned, poorly led and woefully equipped? What transpired during the year in question explains how the foundation was laid for a victory that turned the world upside down. As in any war, Lady Luck cast her lot with the victors. A Dunkirk-like retreat from Brooklyn was accomplished due to heavy fog and 9,000 troops survived to fight again. In the early days of the war, British military leaders were overconfident and, as a result, not aggressive in their tactics. That strategy would haunt the British as the conflict wore on.

1776 is not an historical narrative that bogs itself down in minutiae or incredible detail. There are no lengthy discussions of troop maneuvers or combat casualties. Instead, the reader is introduced to real people who may not be the best-known heroes of the revolution but are important participants in the war effort. Charles Lee was Washington's second-in-command hampered by somewhat of a temper. The Indians named him "Boiling Water." General Israel Putnam was a hero of the Battle of Bunker Hill. At 57, he was one of the oldest members of the army. "Old Put," as he was known to his men, was also one of the bravest. He feared nothing. Israel Trask, at age 10, was perhaps the youngest soldier. He served as a messenger and cook's helper. As a superb biographer McCullough paints brief but nevertheless lasting portraits of soldiers and officers fighting for both the Americans and the British. It is a sobering reminder that ultimately it is the troops that pay the price for warfare. Even today in America the morning news reminds us of that poignant lesson.

The American Revolution has never had the glamour or romance of the Civil War or World War II. 1776 will not change that fact. But the beauty of McCullough's work is that it will inspire readers to look deeper into the story of America's birth. Even today, as our nation struggles to confront issues involving freedom, democracy, security and the balance between those issues, it is important to remember how and why America was born. Thomas Paine remarked about the year recounted by McCullough, "These are the times that try men's souls." It is important to remember those times, and the spirit and struggle that sent our country on its path to greatness.

Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman on December 22, 2010

1776 by David McCullough

• Publication Date: May 24, 2005
• Genres: History , Nonfiction
• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• ISBN-10: 0743226712
• ISBN-13: 9780743226714

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About The Book

About the author.

David McCullough (1933–2022) twice received the Pulitzer Prize, for Truman and John Adams , and twice received the National Book Award, for The Path Between the Seas and Mornings on Horseback . His other acclaimed books include The Johnstown Flood , The Great Bridge , Brave Companions , 1776 , The Greater Journey , The American Spirit , The Wright Brothers , and The Pioneers . He was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. Visit DavidMcCullough.com.

Product Details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (July 4, 2006)
• Length: 400 pages
• ISBN13: 9780743226721
• Lexile ® 1300L The Lexile reading levels have been certified by the Lexile developer, MetaMetrics®

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• Lexile ® 1291 - 1390
• History > United States > General
• History > United States > Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)
• Biography & Autobiography > Military

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Raves and Reviews

"A stirring and timely work." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Brilliant . . . powerful . . . 1776 is vintage McCullough: colorful, eloquent and illuminating." -- Newsweek

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

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'Simply put, this is history writing at its best from one of its top practitioners. - PW starred review 'This is a first-rate historical account, which should appeal to both scholars and general readers.' - Kirkus starred review

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David McCullough Author Biography

Photograph by William B. McCullough

David McCullough was acclaimed as a "master of the art of narrative history." He was the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. In the words of the citation accompanying his honorary degree from Yale, "As an historian, he paints with words, giving us pictures of the American people that live, breathe, and above all, confront the fundamental issues of courage, achievement, and moral character." David McCullough was a two-time winner of the Francis Parkman Prize, and for his work overall he was honored by the National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award, the National Humanities Medal, and the Gold Medal for Biography given by the American Academy ...

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Name Pronunciation David McCullough: mc-CULL-uh

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Book Review: 1776 by David McCullough

Too often we associate history with obligatory lessons at school:  boring, petty, meaningless.  We memorize names and dates without affixing humanity to them, without realizing the inexorable bond that links us to those people and events in the past.  Not only were they human, as we are, and their deeds reflect their humanity, from which we can learn to improve our human attributes, but the decisions they made and the deeds they did affected us and made us what we are now.  Nobody was conceived and raised in a vacuum; we are bound to history just as we are bound to our human physical limitations and the elemental conditions of our environment.  We can no more escape our history than we can escape the Earth’s environment without artificial protection.

This is a hell of a book.  It’s well written and fascinating.  Although I like reading history, my main era of interest is the twentieth century, particularly the Vietnam War and the period of upheaval from the 1950s through the 1970s, which is when I grew up in a strange, schizophrenic, evolving America.  But a couple of circumstances caused me to pick up this book.  First of all, a number of articles I researched and wrote about the colonial era and the Revolutionary War piqued my interest.  Second, I found a pristine, almost-free copy of “1776” at the Seattle Friends of the Library book sale and couldn’t pass it up.

I can’t exactly say that this book reads like a novel, because it is too full of excerpts from journals and letters from people who lived through the action, an approach a novel rarely takes.  But it was as exciting and fascinating as a novel.

Every American knows the basic story, of course, from history lessons in high school and grade school.  We’ve all seen the iconic paintings and heard some of the famous quotes.  But this book goes far, far deeper into the heart of what really happened.  It has a three-act structure, just like a model screenplay – and it would make a hell of an epic movie, by the way.  The first part deals with the siege of Boston, the Colonial Army’s capture of the Dorchester Heights, and the abandonment of the city by the British.  The second part talks of the battle of Long Island and New York, a rousing victory for the British and a stunning defeat for the colonists, forcing the American army to retreat south to New Jersey.  The third part addresses the dejected, tattered state of the army as it flees southward and crosses the Delaware into Pennsylvania, only to return to New Jersey on Christmas Day of 1776 for two stunning victories against the British at Trenton and Princeton.

I never really realized what the colonists were up against in the war against the British, but McCullough makes it clear in gut-wrenching detail.  They were farmers.  Kids as young as fourteen, men with wives and children, old folks left their fields and plows to enlist in the Continental Army.  Some had no firearms, no tents, no boots, no uniforms, no winter clothing.  They slept in the rain and mud; they marched through icy fields with bare feet leaving blood trails behind them.  Sometimes provisions were inadequate; many got fed up, deserted, and went home or over to the enemy.  Disease struck down as many as a quarter of the troops at a time.  The fact that any of them kept going at all, that Americans are now singing “The Star Spangled Banner” instead of “God Save the Queen”, is amazing.

And the most amazing character of all is that of General George Washington, who volunteered to leave his comfortable mansion at Mount Vernon to lead the ragtag mob.  The book delves deep into his character.  He was courageous, persistent, resolute, indefatigable, although he was also sometimes depressed and indecisive.  He was the glue that held the army and the fight for independence together.  Although he despaired in the darkest moments, it never crossed his mind to give up.  He inspired loyalty in such talented and courageous men as Nathaniel Greene and Henry Knox, heroic patriots themselves, who followed him the full duration of the Revolutionary War.

Fascinating details abound.  For example, one of the keys to the victory during the siege of Boston was acquiring the heavy artillery from Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain.  To get them to Boston, Henry Knox and a team of men had to carry them through rugged wilderness in the depths of winter by boat, sled, and wagon for weeks, a heroic effort that enabled the Americans to surprise the British and cause them to flee.  Another vignette tells of an artillery man shot down and killed in the battle for New York.  His wife stepped up to take his place, one of the few women to see action during the Revolutionary War, and held her ground until she became too wounded to continue.

I recommend this book for both entertainment and edification.  It sheds the light of reality on historical stories that have entered the realm of legend.  When you read what America’s forefathers went through during those dark times, it makes you marvel that they had the grit to endure it and see it through to the end.

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Book Review – 1776

I have only elementary knowledge of American history. This is shameful, really, as in high school and university I took at least two courses on American history and did quite well in them as memory serves. Still, somehow I have forgotten much that I ought to know. Popular history, books written about periods of the past but written in a narrative fashion rather than as dry history, have proven useful in refreshing my memory. Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower reminded me of the first days of the American colonies, and I have followed that with David McCullough’s 1776 which tells the story of what is easily the most pivotal, important year in America’s long and storied history.

Though it takes place during the war for independence, and though it concerns that conflict, 1776 is not a history of the war. Rather, it deals with a small slice of the wider campaign. Yet this year, being so pivotal, mirrors the course of the war, for it began with defeat and retreat, but ended with great victories. Though the American forces managed to avoid full-scale battles, they showed their commitment to the ideals of independence through a series of smaller but still important battles.

The book begins in England near the close of 1775. George III, King of England, stands before Parliament and declares the colonies to be in rebellion. “I need not dwell upon the fatal effects of such a plan. The object is too important, the spirit of the British nation too high, the resources with which God hath blessed her too numerous, to give up so many colonies which she has planted with great industry, nursed with great tenderness, encouraged with many commercial advantages, and protected and defended at much expense of blood and treasure.” And so he committed his forces to furthering the conflict and to crushing the opposition.

The closing pages of the book relay King George’s words at the opening of the next year’s Parliament. “Nothing could have afforded me so much satisfaction as to have been able to inform you … that my unhappy people [in America], recovered from their delusion, had delivered themselves from the oppression of their leaders and returned to their duty. But so daring and desperate is the spirit of those leaders, whose object has always been dominion and power, that they have now openly renounced all allegiance to the Crown, and all political connection with this country … and have presumed to set up their rebellious confederacies for independent states. If their treason be suffered to take root, much mischief must grow from it.” The war was not over and there would be much blood still to shed.

Because of the narrow scope of the book, the narrative does not extend to the close of the war. Do the Americans win the war, or are they driven further and further west until they have to admit defeat? Do the British eventually cut their losses and give up on their colony, or do they own them still? And what happened to George Washington? Did the legend of the man extend past 1776 or were his best days already behind him? While these answers are obvious, I almost wished that the book had continued, at least to summarize the remaining years of the war. But, of course, this would defeat the purpose of writing a book with the limited objective of covering a single year.

1776 is popular history at its best. It is easy to read, yet filled with information. It tells the story of an important period of time in a way that is accessible to those who may not wish to read a scholarly treatment of the same material. It is long enough to be thorough, but short enough to avoid being overwhelming. It is good to see both Mayflower and 1776 on the bestseller lists at the same time. Both deserve the honor; both are worthy of a spot in your library.

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1776: The Year That Shaped the Post-Christian West

Review: ‘remaking the world’ by andrew wilson, more by nathan a. finn.

Why are things the way they are?

The world often seems strange to us, and it isn’t always clear why. The most pressing questions are the most challenging, with many perspectives needed to help illuminate the bigger picture.

There are several key texts from recent decades that offer partial explanations for the strangeness of the world.

In A Secular Age , Charles Taylor explains how secularism became the intellectual “default factory setting” in Western culture. Tom Holland in Dominion describes how the West is animated by symbols, institutions, and ideas that reflect the pervasive influence of Christianity. In The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self , Carl Trueman narrates the development of expressive individualism and its effect on modern concepts of sexual identity.

Andrew Wilson’s book Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West ties many of these existing threads together and moves the discussion forward.

Remaking the World is an origin story of our culture. It’s an intellectual history of the modern world wherein so many contemporary believers live and move and have our being.

Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West

Andrew wilson.

With dizzying social transformations in everything from gender to social justice, it may seem like there’s never been a more tumultuous period in history. But a single year in the late 18th century saw a number of influential transformations―or even  revolutions ―that changed the social trajectory of the Western world. By understanding how those events influenced today’s cultural landscape, Christians can more effectively bear witness to God’s truth in a post-Christian age.

You Say You Want a Revolution

In the English-speaking world, 1776 is best known for the start of the American Revolution, a topic Wilson discusses in his book at length. But the origins of the United States of America are only one part of a much larger story.

According to Wilson, “1776, more than any other year in the last millennium, is the year that made us who we are” (7). He argues that various events, figures, and ideas that came of age in 1776 and the years that followed informed seven trends that now define the modern world .

Using the acronym WEIRDER, Wilson says our world is Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian, and Romantic. This concept is not entirely original to Wilson, who draws on first five letters of the acronym (WEIRD) from Joseph Henrich’s 2020 book, The WEIRDest People in the World .

Wilson, who is the teaching pastor at King’s Church London (read TGC’s profile ), suggests many of our baseline assumptions about ourselves and our place in the world are the product of these seven trends—including our commitment to liberal democracy, our appreciation for religious liberty, our individualist emphasis on morality, the expressive nature of so much of our art, and the content of our cultural tensions and debates over personal identity. The shadow of expressive individualism, coupled with greater accessibility to education and affluence, looms large.

How the West Became WEIRDER

Most of Remaking the World is dedicated to recounting the historical origins of the seven WEIRDER trends. Wilson’s metanarrative is persuasive and offers significant explanatory power in describing the world as we now know it. While his chapters don’t strictly follow the acronym, I’ll summarize their content along those lines.

Many of our baseline assumptions about ourselves and our place in the world are the product of these seven trends.

Wilson argues the world became Western (W) because James Cook circumnavigated the globe, clarifying that there was a West (at least from the perspective of European cartographers). The values of Europe, which had traveled further and endured longer because of certain geographic advantages, increasingly shaped the values of the East and eventually the Global South.

We became more Educated (E) because of the rise of what’s often called the Enlightenment. While the name is somewhat misleading, in this period pioneering intellectuals such as Immanuel Kant and Edward Gibbon were transforming how many of us think. Gradually, the subversive ideas of the Paris salon or the London pub became the secular norms of the modern West, though the latter still echoes Christian assumptions more than is typically conceded.

Today, we’re Industrialized (I) because of inventions such as the steam engine, innovations such as factories, and economic priorities such as free markets. The pioneers of the Industrial Revolution could hardly have imagined the pace of innovation that characterizes our ongoing technological revolution.

This trend helped create the next one, as the world became Richer (R) due to what Wilson and others have called the Great Enrichment. Gross domestic product and personal wealth have accumulated at a far greater pace, and to a far greater degree, than in any previous period in history. Wilson attributes aspects of the Great Enrichment to the influence of Christianity while warning against how greed and other vices have fueled enrichment in the modern world.

The West is certainly more Democratic (D), in large part because of the American Revolution and similar movements it inspired in other nations. However, democracy has taken deepest root in nations whose soils remain nurtured by Christian assumptions, even if unacknowledged or commingled with Enlightenment ideas.

But one facet of many democracies, an emphasis on religious disestablishment, has contributed to the Ex-Christian (E) posture of the West. In the 1770s, the seeds of secularism were evident in the skepticism of many leading philosophers, including some American founding fathers, whose skepticism informed their advocacy for religious freedom. The seeds of post-Christian sexual ethics were also evident, epitomized by the depraved writings (and actions) of Marquis de Sade.

Art is both informed by culture and creates culture, and the Romantic (R) movement profoundly shaped the modern West. Wilson discusses several writers who were precursors of expressive individualism and in some cases devotees of the revolution in sexual morality.

Wilson’s narrative, though necessarily general, is nuanced. In every case, he demonstrates the dynamic interplay between Christian ideas and rival worldviews in shaping our current intellectual milieu. The upshot is that some of our assumptions are deeply Christian (even among many unbelievers), while others are sub-Christian or even anti-Christian (even among many believers). The West today isn’t so much Christian or non-Christian as it is simply WEIRDER.

How Then Should We Live?

Wilson’s stated motivation in expounding the intellectual legacy of 1776 is “to help the church thrive in a WEIRDER world” (12). To that end, he spends the final two chapters reflecting on how evangelicals navigated the mid to late 18th century and what that means for us today. His synthesis of intellectual history and pastoral sensibilities is both refreshing and commendable.

The West today is not so much Christian or non-Christian as it is simply WEIRDER.

Remaking the World focuses on three themes: grace, freedom, and truth. Wilson recounts the flowering of evangelical hymnody in the era of John Newton, Augustus Toplady, and Charles Wesley, with their emphasis on God’s free grace available to sinful humans. He discusses the campaign to abolish slavery in England and New England, which was led largely by evangelicals. And he discusses the apologetic for truth (including religious truth) undertaken by the little-known German evangelical philosopher Johann Georg Hamann during the height of the Enlightenment. These classical evangelical emphases are evergreen.

Today, we should remember that the same century that gave rise to our modern world also gave rise to the modern evangelical movement. The earliest generations of evangelicals flourished in the dawning days of the world in which contemporary evangelicals now live.

We can flourish similarly, though not by revising evangelicalism to jell with the assumptions of our culture. Rather, evangelicalism will thrive to the degree we offer a faithful, courageous, and winsome witness to evangelical truth in ways that connect contextually with those whose lives are shaped by the trends Wilson has so helpfully defined and described in Remaking the World .

Nathan A. Finn (PhD Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is professor of faith and culture and executive director of the Institute for Transformational Leadership at North Greenville University . He also serves as teaching pastor at Taylors First Baptist Church. His most recent book is A Handbook of Theology (B&H Academic, 2023), coedited with Daniel L. Akin and David S. Dockery.

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‘1776’ Review: A Revolutionary Take on an Old Warhorse

By Bob Verini

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When the Tony-winning musical “1776” debuted on Broadway in 1969, it celebrated America’s ideals on the eve of its Bicentennial. Half a century later, a radical makeover brings critique front and center, while treating those ideals as a chimera rather than a promise fulfilled. The production’s pre-Broadway tryout at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., holds this truth to be self-evident: that the Declaration of Independence’s promises of freedom and justice were mere words, compromised and betrayed from the very moment of ratification.

Director Diane Paulus is no stranger to re-envisioning musical classics, having given new life to “Hair” and brought out the lessons in a circus-themed “Pippin.” Now she and choreographer/co-director Jeffrey L. Page go all-in on a political perspective, infusing librettist Peter Stone’s story of the Continental Congress with 20/20 hindsight. Never are we allowed to forget that the founders were self-interested fathers, heedless of women as thinking citizens and ready to consign people of color to history’s ashbin.

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A point of view is established right away, in Brechtian strokes. Against a front cloth projection of John Trumbull’s famous July 4 painting – which ended Peter Hunt’s original production – in saunters Crystal Lucas-Perry in white top and black slacks, impressive black braids down her back. She looks up skeptically at the historical fellows, then at us, and embarks on John Adams’ opening speech about Congress defined as “three or more useless men,” to knowing laughter. Before you can say “Sit Down, John,” an entire company of multiracial, multiethnic performers identifying as female, trans and non-binary is revealed. In slow motion and eerily front-lit, they don 18th century outerwear, pull up their stockings and shed sneakers for buckled shoes. Let the play begin!

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This wide-open casting policy, to which “Hamilton” cracked open the door, is no stunt. Beyond offering prodigious talents some juicy roles traditionally closed to them (and inviting contemplation of other opportunities a boys’-club theater has jealously kept to itself), it instantly alienates us from any illusion that these characters are The Real Thing. Critics of “1776” have always argued that its efforts at realism are silly anyhow, with all the warbling and prancing going on. By setting aside verisimilitude, the production is freed up to contextualize the Continental Congress’s machinations through their consequences over the ensuing 200 years.

Thus, as Adams (Lucas-Perry), Jefferson (Elizabeth A. Davis) and Franklin (Patrena Murray) sing about “The Egg” of a new nation ripe for hatching, projected behind them is a collage of images of American activism from abolition to women’s suffrage to ACT-UP. Against that optimism, Southern delegate Edward Rutledge (Sara Porkalob) leads the coruscating indictment of the Triangle Trade, “Molasses to Rum,” in a full-stage evocation of a slave auction through group chorale and dance. Similarly, the Courier’s (Salome Smith) battlefield ballad “Momma, Look Sharp” is acted out by the ensemble in black shrouds, bringing out the universality of war’s scourges.

With the characters played as types, mere simulacra of historical figures who direct arguments out to – and often deliberately rev up – the audience, you have to figure something about the original material is going to get short shrift, and so it does: the simple, suspenseful pleasure of discovering how independence was won against all obstacles. Emphasizing the stakes for 21st century Americans lowers them precipitously for those living in the 18th; you just don’t feel the urgency or the frustration of patriots attempting to find common ground before Washington is defeated and all involved dangle at the end of British ropes.

That loss of narrative drive aside, there’s much pleasure to be had alongside the food for thought. Notable is the treatment of Sherman Edwards’s music and lyrics, which get unusual instrumentation (harpsichord coexisting with guitar, for instance, in John Clancy’s orchestrations), rhythm changes from 4/4 to waltz time, and spine-tingling choral work credited to AnnMarie Milazzo (who must have had a field day with the wide vocal ranges available to her, as opposed to the usual ho-hum tenors and baritones).

This is also the dancing-est “1776” ever, with even old Ben Franklin forgoing gouty leg for a soft-shoe. Some oddness is admitted, like an opening number reminiscent of “La Vie Boheme” from “Rent,” complete with seated choreography and John and Abigail Adams (Allison Kaye Daniel) dancing on the table. Delivering “He Plays the Violin,” a surly Martha Jefferson (Eryn LeCroy) shoves an elbow in our ribs so we get it’s not Tom’s bow she’s bragging about; writhing orgasmically, she’s more Molly Bloom than Molly Pitcher. As for the gesture the conservatives employ on “We never, ever go off half cocked,” the less said the better.

Still, the talent is there, and the audacious production concept – approved, we are pointedly told, by the Stone and Edwards estates – is never complacent. We need more theater that challenges, defiantly. This “1776” will move later this year to the American Airlines Theatre, the Broadway venue operated by the show’s New York co-producer Roundabout Theater Company, and subsequently go on tour. It will ruffle more than a few eagle feathers wherever it lands.

American Repertory Theater, Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge, Mass., 550 seats, $110 top. Opened, reviewed June 2, 2022; runs through July 24. Running time: 2 HOURS 45 MINS.

• Production: A presentation by American Repertory Theater and Roundabout Theatre Company of a musical in two acts written by Peter Stone, based on a concept by Sherman Edwards and music and lyrics by Edwards.
• Crew: Directed by Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus. Choreography, Page; sets, Scott Pask; costumes, Emilio Sosa; lighting, Jen Schriever; sound, Jonathan Deans; projections, David Bengali; music supervisor, David Chase; orchestrations, John Clancy; vocal design, AnnMarie Milazzo; music director, Ryan Cantwell; production stage manager, Alfredo Macias.
• Cast: Crystal Lucas-Perry, Patrena Murray, Elizabeth A. Davis, Liz Mikel, Joanna Glushak, Sara Porkalob, Allison Kaye Daniel, Eryn LeCroy, Gisela Adisa, Nancy Anderson, Becca Ayers, Tiffany Barbour, Allison Briner Dardenne, Mehry Eslaminia, Shawna Hamic, Oneika Phillips, Lulu Picart, Sushma Saha, Ariella Serur, Brooke Simpson, Salome Smith, Sav Souza, Grace Stockdale, Jill Vallery, Rose Van Dyne, Sabrina K. Victor, Imani Pearl Williams.

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O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

By kingsmartarse | Books | May 21, 2010 |

1776 by David McCullough is a historical book written about the year 1776 during the American Revolution. The book focuses on the military aspects of the revolution during that year, the battles at Dorchester Heights, Long Island, and Trenton, as well as the military chain of command for both the Continental and British Army. McCullough does delve a little bit into politics of the American Revolution, but those areas are mostly left in the background (i.e. Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence).

The best thing about the book is that McCullough delivers the history as a story. Most Americans know about the history and the situations of the American Revolution (hopefully), and therefore, it could have been very easy to bore someone who doesn’t have a vast interest in history with the material, but McCullough doesn’t fall into that trap. I didn’t find the “story telling” dry at all as I have experienced with other historical books; he was able to keep the book moving through each event and battle without dragging it down with uninteresting facts. Another reason I thought the book moved well was because of the inclusion of the personal histories of the men in charge of each military. People familiar with the American Revolution (or just America in general) know about George Washington, and some may even be familiar with General Cornwallis of the British. McCullough does place emphasis on Washington, but the entire book does not revolve around Washington. The reader is given a significant dose of the other commanders who were heavily involved including General Howe, Nathanael Green, Henry Knox, and others. McCullough provides the reader with a history for each man, allowing the reader to see where each came from and how he arrived at his station, so that we may better understand their motivations and rationale as they moved through the war.

Another positive aspect of the book is that I didn’t think it was biased towards either side. I always think of the quote, “History is written by the winners,” but I think McCullough fairly portrayed both sides of the war. He didn’t cast Washington as a better and more competent field general than Howe; in fact, he recalled a number of times when Washington’s indecisiveness cost the Continental Army. McCullough showed where the American forces were brilliant, where they were lucky, and where they were terrible examples of human beings, and he did the same for the British/Hessian army (i.e. both sides ransacked towns that they inhabited). The only time I felt biased while reading the book was when McCullough painted the American army as the rough, ragged, grass roots underdog army in comparison to the more refined and well-trained British army. It’s not a fault of McCullough; the American army really was the heavy underdog when compared to the British army, who was the greatest military force (Army and Navy) during that time. I just think that (maybe because OF the American Revolution) Americans are biased towards liking the underdogs. We always seem to cheer for the guy who wasn’t given everything, but perseveres against the odds because of his craftiness, his will power, and/or his luck. Maybe it’s inherent in our patriotism because our nation was founded under that pretense.

While I do enjoy history, particularly military history, I do not read a lot of history books because I find most of the writing bland and dull. In 1776 (and possibly his other books?), David McCullough is able to break that mold and take the history and the facts and present it so that the book reads less like history and more like a good story, making the book a great read.

This review is part of the Cannonball Read series. For more of kingsmartarse’s reviews, check out his blog, Feeling Red .

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

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Summary and Study Guide

1776 is a biography of the American Revolutionary War written by historian David McCullough. Published in 2006, the book is a companion piece to John Adams (2001), a biography McCullough wrote about the second US president. Though the Revolutionary War did not officially end until the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, the text follows George Washington , King George III , Nathanael Greene , Henry Knox , and other key figures as it examines crucial military events.

In recounting Revolutionary War losses and retreats as well as major successes, the book centers primarily on George Washington. Unlike other histories that focus on narrating the Continental Congress’s development of the ideas of “freedom” and “liberty” as they applied to the colonies, this book takes the reader into the trenches, following each of Washington’s battles with his New England militiamen, who were completely untrained and, according to some, unfit for battle.

The book also paints objective, detailed portraits of some of the most important American and British participants of the war. It opens with King George III, the king of England and a villain by most American accounts, seen as having less in common with other royalty than with many commoners. His desire to bring the colonies back into the fold seems sincere, but McCullough allows readers to decide for themselves.

In addition to chronicling George Washington’s heroic battles, it also gives a thorough report of his early life, his educational background, his marriage to Martha Custis, his life as a wealthy Virginia planter, and his love of architecture and home decor. His staid personality comes through, not just in his war exploits but also in his personal dealings with his officers and his men.

Chapter 1 opens in London after the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, as King George III and Parliament grappled with how to respond to the potential war with the colonies. Chapter 2 shifts to the colonies, tracking Washington’s personal history and recounting how he came to command the Continental Army .

Chapter 3 centers around the battle for Boston, as British forces sieged the city. This chapter also explores how the conflict affected everyday citizens and how this campaign affected Washington’s leadership style . Chapters 4 and 5 recount the armies’ southern advance toward New York, focusing on the Continental Army’s many failures and losses during the New York and New Jersey campaigns.

Chapter 6 describes the Continental Army’s disorganized retreat from New York, the disastrous Battle of Fort Washington, and Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River, which pushed the British back northward. Chapter 7, the final chapter, recounts the continued fighting in New Jersey, especially the battles fought around Christmas Day 1776, which secured two key victories for the Americans. The book ends by examining George Washington, Henry Knox, and Nathanael Greene at the end of the war, to explain why they were so important to the revolution’s success.

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By Joseph J. Ellis

• May 11, 2019

THE BRITISH ARE COMING The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 By Rick Atkinson

My old mentor, Edmund Morgan , used to say that everything after 1800 is current events. According to Morgan’s Law, Rick Atkinson has been doing first-rate journalism, enjoying critical and commercial success for three masterly books on World War II, all thoroughly researched and splendidly written. To say that Atkinson can tell a story is like saying Sinatra can sing.

Now Atkinson has decided to move back in time past the Morgan Line, into that distant world where there are no witnesses to interview, no films of battles or photographs of the dead and dying. Visually, all we have are those paintings by John Trumbull, Charles Willson Peale and Gilbert Stuart, all of which are designed to memorialize iconic figures in patriotic scenes, where even dying men seem to be posing for posterity.

Undaunted, Atkinson makes his debut as a historian, determined to paint his own pictures with words. “The British Are Coming” is the first volume in a planned trilogy on the American Revolution that will match his Liberation Trilogy on World War II. It covers all the major battles and skirmishes from the spring of 1775 to the winter of 1776-77. There are 564 pages of text, 135 pages of endnotes, a 42-page bibliography and 24 full-page maps. Lurking behind all the assembled evidence, which Atkinson has somehow managed to read and digest in a remarkably short period of time, is a novelistic imagination that verges on the cinematic. Historians of the American Revolution take note. Atkinson is coming.

[ This book was one of our most anticipated titles of May. See the full list . ]

He brings with him a Tolstoyan view of war; that is, he presumes war can be understood only by recovering the experience of ordinary men and women caught in the crucible of orchestrated violence beyond their control or comprehension. Here, for example, is Atkinson on Benedict Arnold’s trek with his small army through the Maine wilderness during the ill-fated campaign to capture Quebec, which earned Arnold the title of “American Hannibal” for a feat likened to crossing the Alps with elephants:

“Hemlock and spruce crowded the riverbanks, and autumn colors smeared the hillsides. But soon the land grew poor, with little game to be seen. Ticonic Falls was the first of four cataracts on the Kennebec, and the first of many portages that required lugging bateaux, supplies and muskets for miles over terrain ever more vertical, from sea level they would climb 1,400 feet. ‘This place,’ one officer wrote as they rigged ropes and pulleys, ‘is almost perpendicular.’ Sickness set in — ‘a sad plight with the diarrhea,’ noted Dr. Isaac Senter, the expedition surgeon — followed by the first deaths, from pneumonia, a falling tree, an errant gunshot.”

It is as if Ken Burns somehow gained access to a time machine, traveled back to the Revolutionary era, then captured historical scenes on film as they were happening. At times, Atkinson’s you-are-there style is so visually compelling, so realistic, that skeptical souls in the historical profession might wonder if he has crossed the line that separates nonfiction from fiction. How can he possibly know how the sky looked at Concord Bridge? The sound that ice made as it scraped the boats as Washington crossed the Delaware? Whether Gen. William Howe’s boots were soaked with blood as he walked over the dead and wounded bodies on his way up Breed’s Hill ?

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THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION OF 1776

Slave resistance and the origins of the united states of america.

by Gerald Horne ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 22, 2014

Clear and sometimes-passionate prose shows us the persistent nastiness underlying our founding narrative.

Horne (History and African-American Studies/Univ. of Houston;  Negro Comrades of the Crown: African Americans and the British Empire Fight the U.S. Before Emancipation , 2012, etc.) returns with insights about the American Revolution that fracture even more some comforting myths about the Founding Fathers.

The author does not tiptoe through history’s grassy fields; he swings a scythe. He helps readers see that slavery was pervasive in the American colonies—and not just in the South (Rhode Island was a major player in shipping)—and reminds us of the fierce New World competition among England, France and Spain. But beneath these basics is an aquifer of information about slave revolts and the consequent fears of slaveholders. Horne takes us around the colonies, showing that the vast numbers of Africans were setting off alarms all over. He argues that Georgia, for example, was created as a white buffer state between Spanish Florida and the Carolinas, but the white Georgians were soon unhappy:  They  didn’t want to do the unpleasant manual labor, and their competitors—the slaveholders—had an economic advantage. As a result, slaves were soon flowing into Georgia, and Georgians soon began experiencing the same anxieties as the rest of the white colonists. As England began to move more toward ending its slave trade (not for humanitarian reasons), uneasy Americans (rich white ones) began to meet and bray about freedom and liberty, causing many, of course, to note the hypocrisy. Horne also examines the ever harsher laws passed by timorous whites against slaves who disobeyed or revolted—moves which, as the author shows, only intensified slave anger and resistance. As many as 20,000 slaves joined the Redcoats in the Revolution, and the author traces some of our lingering racism back to 1776.

Pub Date: April 22, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-4798-9340-9

Page Count: 368

Publisher: New York Univ.

Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014

CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | HISTORY | UNITED STATES | ETHNICITY & RACE | GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | GENERAL HISTORY

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KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

The osage murders and the birth of the fbi.

by David Grann ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2017

Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.

Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.

During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann ( The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession , 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.

Pub Date: April 18, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017

GENERAL HISTORY | TRUE CRIME | UNITED STATES | FIRST/NATIVE NATIONS | HISTORY

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by David Grann

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BOOK TO SCREEN

by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. 

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. 

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006

ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY

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by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen

by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal

by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel

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1776 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

• ISBN-10 9780743287708
• ISBN-13 978-0743226721
• Edition 1st
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Simon & Schuster
• Publication date May 24, 2005
• Language English
• File size 25920 KB
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Product details.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000FCK5YE
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster; 1st edition (May 24, 2005)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 24, 2005
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 25920 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0743226720
• #2 in Biographies of the American Revolution
• #9 in US Revolution & Founding History (Kindle Store)
• #19 in American Revolution Biographies (Books)

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About the author

David mccullough.

David McCullough has twice received the Pulitzer Prize, for Truman and John Adams, and twice received the National Book Award, for The Path Between the Seas and Mornings on Horseback; His other widely praised books are 1776, Brave Companions, The Great Bridge, and The Johnstown Flood. He has been honored with the National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award, the National Humanities Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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Customers say

Customers find the book interesting, well-written, and gripping. They also describe the historical setting as engaging and restoring troop morale. Readers praise the content as thoroughly researched, stirring humanity, and authentic. They describe the pace as fast and good service. Customers also appreciate the rich characters to follow. Opinions differ on the entertainment value, with some finding it captivating and others saying it's boring.

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Customers find the book well-written, fascinating, and gripping. They also say it's an accessible introduction to the American Revolution, its early battles, and a good to excellent work.

" So well written - if you’re struggling having a bad day thinking you can’t do your life because it’s too hard - or if you don’t believe in America..." Read more

" Very entertaining and informative read. My 5th grade social studies instruction will improve greatly this year due to the contents of this book...." Read more

"...The book is very interesting and tells history in a way that makes the familiar but lifeless face on our all quarter coins come alive as a fallible,..." Read more

"...1776 is popular history at its best. It is easy to read, yet filled with information ...." Read more

Customers find the historical setting engaging, full of researched historical details, and interesting. They also say the book is a timeless classic that focuses completely on one year and restores troop morale.

"...I like that it focuses completely on one year ...." Read more

"Set in the busy year of 1776, the author narrates a compelling story full of the intricacies of war, rebellion, and intrigues that naturally occur..." Read more

"...have to do with the fact that he writes very entertaining and engaging histories , not the the typical dry-as-dust academic fare that is standard in..." Read more

Customers find the book insightful, definitive, and full of real historical details. They also say the author presents a very complete review of the independence fights. Readers also mention that the book includes many proud and heroic moments.

"Very entertaining and informative read . My 5th grade social studies instruction will improve greatly this year due to the contents of this book...." Read more

"...alive as a fallible, brave, committed, weary, frustrated, patient, inspiring , indecisive man...." Read more

"... McCullough's research is prodigious , and the journal entries and letters from "regular" soldiers were rather interesting...." Read more

"...As with everything else McCullough has written, 1776 is both informative and enjoyable...." Read more

Customers find the book fast paced, with vivid imagery and a good flow. They also mention that the service was excellent.

"A quick , informative, interesting read about the start of the Revolutionary War with a focus on George Washington. Definitely worth it." Read more

"...It is a very quick read , being just under 300 pages, but it is a fresh, personal and sometimes amazing look at the birth of the U.S. Very different..." Read more

"... It started slowly , as all good historical novels do...." Read more

"...I found this to be a pretty quick page-turner . The only gripe I might have, is that the book ended rather abruptly -- at the end of 1776!" Read more

Customers find the characters and leadership in the book rich, authentic, and great examples of true leadership. They also say the narrator is great.

"...was made by Washington and his troops, and how the heroic Washington was so very human ." Read more

"...and the journal entries and letters from "regular" soldiers were rather interesting ...." Read more

"...become real characters in a real play, and McCullough gives us rich characters to follow ..." Read more

"...And it was. The detail, the personality descriptions , the details of battle, etc., etc. Couldn't ask for much better, McCullough at his best...." Read more

Customers find the documentation in the book clear, concise, and engaging. They also appreciate the reproductions of founding documents and letters.

"...He shows in remarkable clarity how George Washington struggled both outwardly and inwardly to create a well-organized, professional fighting force..." Read more

"...As if McCullough's style wasn't realistic enough, there are ample portraits , graphics, and maps in this book to give the reader a real feel for the..." Read more

"...It is filled with personal letters of Washington , American officers, and excerpts from diaries of many different soldiers; revealing how..." Read more

"...He also paints very vivid of pictures of battles , placing the reader in the middle of the action to the point where you can almost hear the cannon..." Read more

Customers find the book hard to put down and easy to follow while walking. They also say the pieces fit together seamlessly.

"...Full of real, researched historical details and hard to put down (not many heavily researched history books can claim that)...." Read more

"...They just fit together so seamlessly , and again, the man is so real. One feels as if they know him. Amazing!!! what a talent." Read more

"...No idea, my bad. OK so once I started this book it was difficult to put down . I've read 25+ books covering 1776 alone. Seen the moves and TV shows...." Read more

"...Easy to read, hard to put down , and concise to the specific subject. Look forward to reading other books by Mr. McCullough" Read more

Customers are mixed about the entertainment value of the book. Some find it captivating and accurate, while others say parts are bland and boring.

"...The way the whole year was narrated was done in an entertaining way and made all of the people involved in the events of the year come to life." Read more

"...For a while, the book can seem a little repetitive , as Washington leads his "army"..." Read more

"...McCullough's style was easy to read and entertaining and he even brought the British perspective somewhat to light...." Read more

"...The focus on details is, most of the times, an unnecessary distraction ...." Read more

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