1776
During my vacation I read"1776" by David McCullough. I've always been
more of a Revolutionary period buff than WWII or Civil War and greatly
looked forward to this book. Fortunately for me, McCullough delivered
a wonderful book. I'm not much of a war book reader, more of a fan of
Constitutional Convention history, but the beginnings of the
Revolutionary War are pretty interesting when written well.
The interesting things I learned were George Washington's relative
ineptitude in early 1776 and while not a surprise, the ragtagitude of
the Rebel army. It is shocking that the Rebels were able to overcome
the beginning of the war and defeat the vastly superior British army
and navy. The other interesting thing was the contempt the British
army felt for the rebels. McCullough points out that the Americans had
a higher standard of living in 1776 than any other people in the world
at the time. The British could not understand why these relatively
wealthy people would revolt against the king and held them in very low
regard because of their rebellion.
The revolution could have very easily gone the other way, but for the,
in retrospect, utter ridiculousness of the British generals deciding
to sit out the winter and allowing the rebel army to take the
offensive and do a surprise attack that turned the tides of the war.
In late December of 1776, Washington was able to muster a master
strike against the sitting British army that put them completely on
the defensive. This battle forced the British to employ a new southern
strategy that wasn't focused on in the book but extended the war for
several years.
"1776" didn't really focus on any of the ideas of the founders that
eventually found their way into the Declaration of Independence,
instead focusing on tactics of the war. Nevertheless, it was an
interesting and quick read, that was very fitting to read over
Memorial Day weekend. Reading about how much our first soldiers
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