Essay - David Mcculough David Mccullough's 1776: an Historical Analysis in This...

DAVID MCCULOUGH

DAVID McCULLOUGH'S 1776:

***** HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

In this amazingly accurate and timely book, author David McCullough, a two-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for literature, related the intensely human story of the brave men who marched with General George Washington in ***** year when the Declaration of Independence was signed, a crucial event in American history when the whole American cause ***** freedom from the tyranny of Great Britain was dependent on the success of these ***** patriots. Based ***** extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a very powerful drama written with exemplary narrative vitality ***** awareness.

The story itself focuses on the men who served in the American ranks against ***** British during the American Revolution, ***** of e***** shap*****, size and color and from virtually every walk of life, such as farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, social outcasts and ********** boys under the age of fifteen. It is also the story of the King's Men (i.e. King George III), the British commander William Howe and his highly disciplined redcoats. As an added benefit, ***** has also included ***** exper*****nces ***** Americans loyal to the English Crown, Hessian mercenaries, politicians, traitors and spies and the ordinary men and women caught in the path of a bloody w*****r.

Unlike similar books which have been published over the years concern*****g the American Revolution, McCullough has saved the final three paragraphs to express his overall ********** or theme:

The Revolutionary War ***** a longer, far more arduous and ***** painful struggle than later generations would *****st***** or... appreciate. By the time it ended, ***** had taken ***** lives of an estimated 25,000 Americ*****s... The year 1776... 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... and fear... especially for those who had ***** with *****. Thus, the outcome seemed little short of a miracle" (294).

As ***** quote so brilliantly points out, at the center ***** the drama, along ***** ***** Washington, stood two young American ***** who at first knew nothing about war outside of what they had read in books—Nathanael Greene, a Qu*****ker, made a general at the age of thirty-***** and Henry Knox, a twenty-five ***** old bookseller ***** suggested ***** then insane idea of taking the guns at Fort Ticonderoga ***** hauling *****m overland to the city ***** Boston in the dead of winter. Of course, the most central character is ***** ***** himself, the ********** who in 1776 had never led an army into battle.

McCullough begins his superior narrative in London on October 26, 1775, when His Majesty King George III went before the English Parliament to declare that the ***** col*****ies are in rebellion against the ***** and to affirm his personal resolve ***** crush it at all costs. From there, McCullough moves to the siege of Boston and describes in detail its amazing outcome, then to the city of New York, where British ships