Genre: History
Length: 386 pages
Audiobook Length: 11 hours and 33 minutes
First Published: 2005
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Publisher’s Description
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.
Quotes from 1776
There are no people on earth in whom a spirit of enthusiastic zeal is so readily kindled, and burns so remarkably, as Americans.
In fact, the Americans of 1776 enjoyed a higher standard of living than any people in the world.
A people unused to restraint must be led, they will not be drove.
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.
About David McCullough
David McCullough is an American historian, author, and narrator. His books Truman and John Adams each won Pulitzer Prizes. His other popular books include 1776, The Johnstown Flood, The Wright Brothers, The Pioneers, and The Great Bridge. He is also the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.
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