McCullough is known for his ability to make history come alive, and I was eager to see how he'd tackle the American Revolution.

The Good Stuff:

McCullough’s storytelling is top-notch. The man knows how to weave a tale. He zooms in on the pivotal moments of that year and makes you feel like you’re right there in the thick of things. The book focuses heavily on George Washington and his journey from a somewhat unsure leader to a figure of resilience and determination. It’s refreshing to see Washington portrayed not as an infallible hero but as a real person grappling with real challenges. McCullough paints a vivid picture of a man under immense pressure, which makes Washington much more relatable and human.

One of the things I loved about the book is the way McCullough uses letters and diary entries from the time. These personal snippets really bring the story to life and give you a sense of what people were feeling as events unfolded. It’s like getting a behind-the-scenes look at history, which I found both fascinating and engaging.

The descriptions of the battles and the conditions faced by the Continental Army are also well done. McCullough doesn't shy away from the gritty details, and he does an excellent job showing just how tough it was for these soldiers. Reading about the mud, the hunger, and the sheer exhaustion the troops faced gives you a newfound respect for what they endured. It's a gritty, no-holds-barred look at the reality of war during that time, and it makes you appreciate the stakes they were up against.

The Not-So-Good Stuff

This book focuses quite heavily on military strategy and battles. If you're a military history buff, you’ll probably love it. But I found myself wishing for a bit more context about what was happening beyond the battlefield. What were ordinary folks up to during all this? How were these events affecting everyday life? I felt like there was room for more exploration of the broader social and political climate of the time.

McCullough also tends to focus on the "big names" of history. Washington, of course, gets a lot of attention, but I would have loved to hear more about the unsung heroes of the Revolution. What about the women, Native Americans, and enslaved people who also had roles in these events? A little more variety in perspectives could have added more depth to the narrative.

All in all, McCullough’s writing is engaging, and his knack for storytelling shines through. He does a solid job portraying the drama and uncertainty of the Revolutionary War's early days, making you feel the weight of each decision and battle.

If you're interested in American history or enjoy books that make the past feel real and immediate, *1776* is definitely worth a read. Just be prepared for some heavy focus on military details and maybe keep a search engine handy for those moments when you need a little extra context.

McCullough does it again !! His fascinating narrative about the trial and tribulations as Washington's troops suffer from the weather and defeats by the most powerful army in the world and still win is truly inspiring.

Being a fan of the TV series TURN: Washington's Spies, I had a particular interest in this book. Also, David McCullough is a magnificent author. I listened to the audio book and McCullough also read the book in which he also is quite talented.

The year 1776 was a very pivotal year in the American Revolution. On July 4th every year, we celebrate the Declaration of Independence. It was also year that did not go particularly well for General George Washington. The year 1776 marked the year Great Britain assembled the greatest invasion force in its history and even the 18th century with 400 ships entering the harbor around Long Island. King George wanted to put an end to the unrest in the American Colonies. The British almost accomplished that mission.

In the early days of the Revolutionary War, generals on both sides didn't have any idea the strength of the enemy and therefore made decisions on inadequate information. Washington was an information-based general and wanted make decisions on what he knew. That turned out to be very little. After major defeats at New York in the summer 1776, Washington withdrew his forces to regroup. The Continental Army was out-manned, out-gunned and lacked the experience in battle engagements the British Army possessed.

After reading and watching many fictionalized accounts of the Revolutionary War, the more factual information doesn't carry the drama and is not quite as interesting. Even McCullough's meticulous research and presentation waned a little for me. I think this had to do with the book being about a time period rather than a particular individual. A good part of the historical record is captured through private correspondence between various people of the time. McCullough does pay substantial tribute to George Washington. This tribute is inspiring. Washington was not a highly trained soldier, or strategist or a particularly articulate man. Yet he believed in America's freedom and was an unwavering stalwart in leading the army to win for that cause.

The book 1776 is an interesting and inspiring account of the tremendous perseverance, heroism and just plain luck (or call it what you want) of America's road to independence.

After having read David McCullough’s excellent book about the Wright Brothers recently, I was sufficiently impressed with his work that I decided to seek out additional books by this fine author. Despite my love of military history, I have largely neglected the Revolutionary War period until now. I knew the names of some of the battles and that the Continental Army was a ragtag force, but that was about it. Shameful, I know. In choosing this book as my introduction to the period I definitely made a good decision.

To paraphrase a Goodreads friend’s comment about McCullough, “He’s such a fine writer that he could write about the history of tennis balls and make it interesting.” The comment certainly hit the mark as this is a fantastic book in every way. McCullough’s style is a pleasure to read.

As indicated by the title, the book covers only the pivotal year of 1776. It begins with the siege of Boston following the battle of Bunker Hill and ends with the Battle of Princeton in New Jersey at the end of the year. In between, we learn of the immense troubles that George Washington faced. It is amazing that he was able to do as well as he did considering that most of his army consisted of untrained militia with limited enlistment periods. Add to this the paucity of good leaders and you have a recipe for disaster. Through it all he manages to keep the army together despite the constant hemorrhaging of its strength through desertion, disease, defection and expiring enlistments. Throughout the year Washington suffers from indecision and in some cases is loath to issue outright orders to his subordinates. His decision to defend New York nearly ends in disaster as an overwhelming British force outmaneuvers him and inflicts a decisive defeat upon the Continental Army. However, this defeat also brings Washington’s strengths to the fore as he deftly organizes a retreat from Long Island thereby avoiding certain destruction not only of the army but probably of the American cause. If his decision to defend Long Island was a poor one, his decision to abandon it and effect an escape is a brilliant one. This is the pattern that develops throughout the book. Washington makes mistakes but learns from them and manages to extricate his army to fight another day.

Another strength of George Washington was his ability to recognize the good leaders he had such as Nathaniel Greene and Henry Knox. In return, these leaders were exceptionally loyal to Washington. This was fortunate since these leaders and others were instrumental in the winning of what would be a protracted war. Washington must have been quite an inspiring figure for most seemed to hold him in high regard despite the troubles faced by the army.

The only negative thing I can think of is the lack of maps. I think some maps of the battles would certainly be helpful, especially to a denizen of the west coast like myself who is not intimately familiar with the geography of the area. This is especially true of the Boston area since the geography of modern Boston is nothing like that of colonial Boston. Nevertheless, the lack of maps is hardly a crippling flaw and does not detract from my rating of this book.

I recommend this book highly. McCullough’s style is so good that I think anyone, even those not previously interested in the period, would enjoy it. I will be reading more of McCullough’s books to be sure.

1776 was a particularly important year in the American story – and not just because of the Declaration of Independence that was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4th of that year. For Americans who supported the cause of independence, the year 1776 was filled with dramatic highs and lows, as David McCullough conveys in his 2005 book 1776, a work that takes the reader all the way through that singularly dramatic calendar year from beginning to end.

McCullough is, of course, one of the pre-eminent American historians working today. His core theme seems to be American innovation and achievement in the face of heavy odds, as with his works about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the construction of the Panama Canal, and the Wright Brothers’ achievement of powered flight. He has also focused on American leaders; his biographies of John Adams and Harry S Truman encouraged reconsideration and renewed appreciation for the work and the legacy of two often-underestimated U.S. presidents. His 1776 follows squarely in both of those thematic trajectories.

1776 actually begins by looking back to September 1775, when General George Washington’s military plans included a couple of self-evident duds: an ill-fated attack on the French Canadian city of Quebec, and what would have been a disastrous direct attack on the British-held and exceptionally well-fortified city of Boston. McCullough explains well why it is fortunate that Washington’s plan to attack Boston was ultimately a road not taken:

His second plan was to end the waiting and strike at Boston – which, it was understood, could mean destruction of the town. British defenses were formidable. In fact, defenses on both sides had been strengthened to the point where many believed neither army would dare attack the other. Also, a siege by definition required a great deal of prolonged standing still and waiting. But standing still and waiting were not the way to win a war, and not in Washington’s nature. (p. 51)

Luckily, Washington’s own subordinate officers, in one council of war after another, talked the tall Virginian out of launching his Boston attack; and the British ultimately evacuated Boston, of their own accord, in March of 1776. The Loyalist refugees leaving Boston included Harvard graduates, members of prestigious families like the Faneuils of Faneuil Hall, and even John Hancock’s former mistress. General Howe’s fleet left, and then George Washington’s Continental Army came in; and Washington was impressed by

...the strength of the enemy’s defenses. The town was “amazingly strong…almost impregnable, every avenue fortified,” he wrote. But if this gave rise to any second thoughts about his repeated desire to send men against such defenses, or the wisdom of his council of war in restraining him, Washington kept such thoughts to himself. Just as he had shown no signs of despair when prospects looked bleak, he now showed no elation in what he wrote, or in his outward manner or comments. (p. 107)

If you’re expecting that this book about the year 1776 will include a great deal about the Declaration of Independence that was promulgated from the rebel capital at Philadelphia in July of that year, then you may be disappointed. The Declaration gets only three pages out of a 294-page book. With his interest in the on-the-ground strategic and tactical realities of the year’s Revolutionary campaigns, McCullough acknowledges the Declaration’s soaring language of “all men are created equal,” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” but points out that a cynic could argue that “Such courage and high ideals were of little consequence…the Declaration itself being no more than a declaration without military success against the most formidable force on Earth” (p. 136).

Yet McCullough, in no mood for cynicism, ultimately acknowledges that the Declaration was much more than a paper eagle being waved in the face of the British lion:

At a stroke the Continental Congress had made the Glorious Cause of America more glorious still, for all the world to know, and also to give every citizen soldier at this critical juncture something still larger and more compelling for which to fight. Washington saw it as a “fresh incentive,” and to his mind it had not come a moment too soon. (p. 137)

The year 1776 still held plenty of setbacks and challenges for the independence-minded Americans. Most of the British forces that had left Boston in March had headed for New York, and the Continental forces outside the city were confident; but the Continental troops were untrained, camp fever was rampant, and the British were well-dug-in and more than ready for a fight.

What resulted was a major defeat for the Continental forces at the Battle of Brooklyn on August 27, 1776 – an unalloyed disaster that could have resulted in the destruction of George Washington’s entire army, if not for a gallant and exceedingly costly counter-assault by the Continental Army’s Maryland Line. Defeat at Brooklyn in late August was followed by a disorderly retreat through New York and into New Jersey in September:

The army that had shown such remarkable discipline and unity through the long night of the escape from Brooklyn had rapidly become engulfed with despair, turned surly and out of hand. Gangs of soldiers roamed the streets of New York, breaking into houses and taking whatever they wanted….Men in the ranks complained they had been “sold out.” Some were openly saying they longed for the return of General Lee. Washington’s leadership was in question. (pp. 201-02)

As if things didn’t seem apocalyptic enough in New York City in those days, the city suffered what is still called its “Great Fire” on September 20, 1776; as many as 1,000 buildings, or 25 percent of all the structures in the city, were destroyed. Unsurprisingly, the British and the Americans blamed one another for the conflagration, though the actual cause of the disaster has never been ascertained.

The Continental Army’s long retreat across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania continued through November, witnessed by no less a luminary of the Revolution than Thomas Paine: “Sick at heart over the suffering and despair he saw, but inspired by the undaunted resolution of many around him, Paine is said to have committed his thoughts to paper during the retreat, writing at night on a drumhead by the light of a campfire” (p. 251). Whether he was writing by a campfire’s light or not, Paine was as inspired by the Revolutionary cause as ever; and on December 23, Paine published The American Crisis, with its famous opening line, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

And if some pro-independence Americans might have been happy with The American Crisis as a Christmas present, George Washington had a much better gift in store. In a moment that was later immortalized on canvas (albeit inaccurately) by artist Emmanuel Leutze, Washington led his Continental Army troops on a Christmas-night crossing of the icy Delaware River, from Pennsylvania to New Jersey, and successfully attacked an encampment of holiday-minded Hessians at Trenton on the early morning of December 26.

American casualties: 5 wounded, plus 2 who died from exposure to the cold. Hessian casualties: 22 killed, 83 wounded, and about 900 captured. It was just the kind of big victory the American cause needed – and it left Americans, as the pivotal year of 1776 ended, looking ahead to 1777 and the rest of the Revolutionary War with a renewed determination to fight through to final victory.

Ultimately, McCullough characterizes the year 1776 as “a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear…but also of phenomenal courage and bedrock devotion to country”. Looking at the year 1776 in its totality, it is hard not to agree with McCullough that “the outcome seemed little short of a miracle” (p. 294); and McCullough conveys well the improbable, miraculous qualities of that historic year throughout his 1776.

I'm not sure how something so short can still be so complete but this does the trick. If you have the slightest interest in the American revolution, this is a great place to start. As entertaining as it is informative.

A wonderful historical look at the fraught first year of conflict during the American Revolutionary War. The book starts on Oct 26, 1775, when His Majesty, King George III, went in front of Parliament to declare the American Colonies were in a state of Rebellion..

MCullough's masterful history shows us the events and the personalities involved in this pivotal time. From the British commanders like Admiral Lord Howe and his brother, General Lord Howe, to the American side like General Washington and General Lee. But we also will hear the story and events told from the view of the Hessian mercenaries, the farmers-turned-rebel American farmers, to ordinary civilians caught in the middle. This is history that reads like a novel.

Superbly written this truly shows the enormous challenges faced by the Americans facing the most powerful military force of the era. From the nearly catastrophic start of the conflict to the massive victories of the final part of the year, the vast scope and danger of the first year of the American Revolution are beautifully told in this excellent history book.

Intended as a companion book to the John Adams biography, and also complements Ron Chernow's Washington. It was a quick read (only 300 pages), and I enjoyed it. I wanted some additional military history to read that wasn't dry, and 1776 was entertaining. Can't really go wrong with this book. I think I might have my fill of the year 1776 for now, and can move on.

Look to our past...could anything make you more aware of the way in which our country's very beginning came to be than a book by the esteemed author David McCullough? He writes with such a clear vision of what had transpired and makes history become not only alive but one in which the blinders are removed and the true story is told.

Such is the case with his book 1776. This is the year that started everything, the year we discovered the grit, the courage, and the valor needed to cast off the country of Great Britain and eventually become a little fledgling nation on its path to glory.

However, the route to freedom was fraught with danger and led by General Washington, who clearly saw exactly the situation we were in. “In truth, the situation was worse than they realized, and no one perceived this as clearly as Washington. Seeing things as they were, and not as he would wish them to be, was one of his salient strengths.” The war was not going well for the Americans. In fact, Jan and I often marveled at how on earth we could ever win. Out flanked, out maneuvered, and met by the greatest army the earth had ever known seemed a recipe for disaster. For many it was exactly that, disaster.

Yet met by the forces of the British General Howe, George Washington, Nathaniel Greene, and Henry Knox became leaders. Young, inexperienced facing insurmountable odds, these men persevered through conditions that were appalling, life threatening, and seemingly impossible. Yet, succeed they did. Although, it did seem that at times the very weather seemed to favor the impoverished army made up of farmers, blacksmiths, store keepers and others who had little or no training, no uniforms, few supplies, and the fate of treason and death hanging over their heads.

Mr McCullough pulls no punches. He doesn't make this history one of glory with bugles blazing and drums pounding. He makes the reader understand the very gritty and horribleness of the war, the fact that the British soldiers plus the mercenaries, the Hessians, looked upon the Americans as rebels, as no accounts, as the figurative dirt beneath their feet. He makes us understand that we were ripe for losing. It was probably something laughed about across the sea in the court of George the Third. We were doomed, failure was the determined outcome, death to those who would dare to challenged England, the master of all they surveyed.

Yet, here we are, a nation founded on the will of people who did what needed to be done. “There are no people on earth in whom a spirit of enthusiastic zeal is so readily kindled, and burns so remarkably, as Americans” Perhaps in all the history of the world, there is no more a valiant story than the one Mr McCullough relates to us. We can be proud of what transpired before us, of the bravery, the very fearlessness, fortitude, and heroism that proceeded us. Perhaps in every way, we can find within ourselves the very mettle our ancestors had to face the multiple challenges of an America we currently live in. I hope and pray that we do.

Is there anyone who is not troubled by the times we live in? We face each day unrest, violent protests, looting, the loss of respect for values, attacks against opinions unacceptable to some, and if that isn't enough we also face the up and down onslaught of a virus no one seems to understand. Jan and I both decided it was time to take a look to our past and how we started as a nation, a country, a land that we love. In answer to the feelings and despicable behavior we view nightly on the news, we picked up David McCullough's 1776 and were transported to a time where people truly fought for a new nation, for the values of freedom, and made the ultimate sacrifice.
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I've read this book once before years ago....
I had it on my shelf for quite some time. And I happened to pick it up just at the right time. While in the midst of reading the book. One day at work where I was selling mens clothes. Guess whom came wondering in with his godson, to buy him a sportcoat for his college graduation??? David McCullough! I had just moved to Massachusetts and I've been eying his books for years. When he gave his name for picking up the items needed tailoring... I was shocked and said something to the effect of "The historical nonfiction writer, David McCullough?" Then started my asking him all sorts of questions regarding the Revolutionary War, Boston, Massachusetts questions.... I had actually just watched the HBO series of 'John Adams' and had the book on my shelf too. So John, Sam, Abigail, and John Quincy Adams were in the mix too. "Who were the Minutemen?" "Do you think the Plymouth Plantation would've been more successful if they had settled in the Boston area first?" "Is history really fair with Squanto, or Tisquantum?" so many questions!!!!
By the way... He stayed an extra hour answering my questions, explained the locals, never was he impatient. He enjoyed talking about his expertise, his passion was showing throughout. His godson was paying attention and enjoying the conversation too.
Asking for an autograph didn't even come to my mind... Until I got home and saw his books! But instead of the signature... To this day, I will never forget him, I shall cherish and treasure that hour of conversation!
RIP David and peace for your family!

McCullough could write about the history of indoor plumbing practices and I'd still be enraptured. He's that effective and engrossing as a historical writer. This work provides a one-year snapshot of the American Revolution (focusing a majority of text on military strategy and key players for both the Continental Army and British), and aside from the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it really wasn't the greatest of years for the Americans from a military perspective. But the "spirit" of the Revolution was born by year's end and the rest is history... A solid read for American history or military history buffs.

Fireworks and the Declaration of Independence are the only 2 things we normally associate with 1776. I thought I had a good outline of the war. Was I wrong, this book reveals so much that is skipped over in most history classes and books. Read this incredible story to find out the real story of that fateful year. How close we came to being crushed by the dominant military power in the world. What increased admiration I have for the men who fought through to end that year in victory when all seemed lost. Washington comes through as a real person, not some misty legend. He made plenty of errors on the way to learning how to lead an army. The stories of Greene and Knox are also wonderfully revealing. Should be mandatory reading for all high school students. And it is a easy book to get through-I wish there were some more maps but that's me. Story is fine as it is.