1776

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

In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence-when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.

Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King's men, the British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known.

Written as a companion work to his celebrated biography of John Adams, David McCullough's 1776 is another landmark in the literature of American history.

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

Autorentext

David McCullough

Klappentext

McCullough takes the reader on the extraordinary journey of Henry Knox, the Boston book seller who set off in mid-winter to bring back the heavy British artillery that had been left at Fort Ticonderoga. This is narrative history at its best that brings to life an extraordinary period, and a vast array of extraordinary characters on both sides of the conflict. This is not "military" history, though it contains many battles, nor "biography", though it illuminates the lives of many men and women, but quite history well told.