Andy's Reviews > 1776

One of the more patriotic books I've read in a while (and started around Memorial Day, and picked up again and finished right before the Fourth). It is a history of the Revolutionary War mostly during the year 1776, although with some backdrop in 1775. Author David McCullough takes you through the major military involvements in Boston, then New York, and then the retreat through New Jersey and finally the famous crossing of the Delaware.

Lest anyone be confused, this book is a blow-by-blow military history book. You will observe the battles, hear the generals discuss tactics, follow the armies' marches, and learn about the lives of American soldiers. (In particular you will learn about the personalities of some of the generals and other high-ranking officers, most amusingly Washington's passion for home improvement.) You will not, for example, learn all that much about the Continental Congress, except to the extent that they interacted with Washington and his armies, or about social/economic causes of the Revolution, or about the everyday lives of civilians before and during the war and their opinions and sympathies, except to the extent that the soldiers themselves were ordinary civilians in peacetime.

The military history is solid, but I think the lack of other narratives puts a big cap on how good this book can be. I feel like wars are means to ends, highly violent and visible manifestations of extant social currents, flow of ideas, unrest and discontentment, economic changes, etc. and without talking about that and only discussing troop movements, encampments, and barrack conditions, you miss out on a large part of the story and get something a little encyclopedic. "Useful" perhaps but not especially thought-provoking.