num_pages: 386
description: 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 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 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. But it is the American commander-in-chief who stands foremost: Washington, who had never before led an army in battle.The darkest hours of that tumultuous year were as dark as any Americans have known. Especially in our own tumultuous time, 1776 is powerful testimony to how much is owed to a rare few in that brave founding epoch, and what a miracle it was that things turned out as they did.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.
language: English
title: 1776
titlecomplete: 1776
characters: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Rufus Putnam, George III of Britain and Ireland, George Washington
genres: Audiobook, American Revolutionary War, Politics, Historical, Military Fiction, American History, War, Nonfiction, American Revolution, History
ratings_count: 224551
awards: awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: The Quill Award
category: History/Current Events/Politics, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: American Compass Best Book
publisher: Simon & Schuster (NY)