1776.

• Author: Kreyche, Gerald F.
• Position: Book Review

1776

BY DAVID MCCULLOUGH SIMON AND SCHUSTER 2005, 386 PAGES, $32.00

Two-time Pulitzer prize winner David McCullough has produced a book that should be read and digested by every American. It recalls the early struggles that the colonists went through to gain independence from Great Britain. We owe a debt to them that never can be repaid--only acknowledged.

Divided into three parts--The Siege, Fateful Summer, and The Long Retreat--this tome confines itself to the first year of the Revolution. Beginning with an account of the power and splendor of the mother country, the author explains the commotion discontented Americans 3,000 miles away caused in Parliament. McCullough's research reveals that few of us understood the British mentality of the time. King George III was not mad (not until decades later, due to a hereditary disease) but a well-liked monarch, who himself preferred puttering in his garden to ruling. An eloquent speaker, he wanted to compromise with the Americans and keep the Empire intact. His Boston commander, Gen. William Howe, however, informed him that the Americans wanted nothing less than to establish their own sovereignty.

April 19, 1776, proved to be a fateful day, as the Battle of Concord revealed that Howe's diagnosis was correct. Americans were determined to be a free people. The English felt they had to save face before their other colonies, and subsequently went to war. It was a costly decision. At the Battle of Bunker Hill, for instance, the British emerged victorious, but suffered 1,000 casualties. The majority of the English felt that, basically, Americans were just "rabble rousers" with guns. The colonists lacked discipline and had almost no experience fighting a war. Their early demise was predicted and the British hired foreign mercenaries--mostly Hessians--to help do the dirty work of putting them in their place.

McCullough is excellent at giving thumb-nail sketches of major participants from both sides. He portrays George Washington as a great and inspiring figure, but one who nevertheless had his flaws. Among...