1776
I finally finished 1776 by David McCullough. It took me a while to get through it. The information given in this book is extensive, and I learned a lot – much of which was completely different than what I had been taught in school.
One of the main things that struck me about this book is how often something unexplained – providential – happened that kept the British from completely obliterating the Americans and their hope of an independent nation.
“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.
Especially for those who had been with Washington and who knew what a close call it was at the beginning – how often circumstance, storms, contrary winds, the oddities or strengths of individual character had made the difference – the outcome seemed little short of a miracle.”
