Summary Of 1776 By David Mccullough

David McCullough, in his Quill award winning book 1776, takes readers on a 294-page journey, which provides a vivid description of how Virginian born General George Washington became the first commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, and led them to victory against the British Red Coat Army commanded by General Howe, in the year of the American’s Declaration of Independence. McCullough, a Pulitzer award winning writer, diverts from his renowned biography writing of major historical figures such as John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, and Harry Truman, to focus on the war and politics that shaped the most important year in America’s long and storied history in his book 1776. The book 1776 is said to be a companion piece to its predecessor John

He explains that the army didn’t feel competent enough to take down the Red Coats, and even George Washington did not believe he was good enough to lead because he lacked experience. The writer believes that the turnaround point for the army was on the first day of the year in 1776, when copies of the speech given by the “The Mad King” (King George III) at the opening of the parliament in October of the previous year, was handed out to the army. The contents of this speech, which declared the American colonies in rebellion, and expressed the king’s determination to bring them back under British authority, angered the Continental army and affirmed their resolve to gain independence from Great Britain. McCullough focuses mainly on the role General George Washington played in America’s Independence, but he does not fail to acknowledge the roles figures like Nathanael Greene, a Quaker self-taught military tactician who became the youngest brigadier general of the American army at age thirty-three, and book-seller Henry Knox, who had the preposterous idea of hauling the guns of Fort Ticonderoga overland to Boston in the dead of winter, played in the victory over the British Red Coat