1776 David Mccullough Sparknotes
McCullough, David. 1776. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005.
The words never judge a book by its cover have been spoken many times, but some covers beg to be judged. The cover of 1776, with its wartime painting and bold red lettering on the front, immediately draws people into it. However, upon opening the novel it is visually intimidating with many quotes in the middle of pages and nearly one-hundred pages of sources, notes, and acknowledgements. Despite this, McCullough delivers a personal story of the year 1776, detailing both the American and British sides of the struggle. 1776 is a novel that has the ability to interest the scholarly elite and the average citizen with it’s interesting take on one of the focal years of the American Revolution. McCullough has a long list of accolades and achievements that build his repertoire, including being a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize award in addition to being a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom which is the highest award that the United States offers to civilians. In …show more content…
1776 tells the story of the “rabble” of an army Washington created and their struggle against all odds to survive (291). The novel starts in the fall of 1775 and concludes in January of 1777 after the American victory of Trenton. On multiple occasions McCullough tells of how the Continental Army was nothing more than a “rabble in arms” and how many perceived it as nothing more than “a preposterous parade” (25). McCullough does not attempt to mask the difficulties the army endured. He tells, with brutal honesty, the odds they faced and the obstacles they overcame. It details their victory at Boston, their defeat at New York, retreat through New Jersey, and victories at both Princeton and Trenton. McCullough gives an honest summary of the events from the middle of 1775 to the Americans victory at Trenton in three-hundred and eighty six
The words never judge a book by its cover have been spoken many times, but some covers beg to be judged. The cover of 1776, with its wartime painting and bold red lettering on the front, immediately draws people into it. However, upon opening the novel it is visually intimidating with many quotes in the middle of pages and nearly one-hundred pages of sources, notes, and acknowledgements. Despite this, McCullough delivers a personal story of the year 1776, detailing both the American and British sides of the struggle. 1776 is a novel that has the ability to interest the scholarly elite and the average citizen with it’s interesting take on one of the focal years of the American Revolution. McCullough has a long list of accolades and achievements that build his repertoire, including being a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize award in addition to being a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom which is the highest award that the United States offers to civilians. In …show more content…
1776 tells the story of the “rabble” of an army Washington created and their struggle against all odds to survive (291). The novel starts in the fall of 1775 and concludes in January of 1777 after the American victory of Trenton. On multiple occasions McCullough tells of how the Continental Army was nothing more than a “rabble in arms” and how many perceived it as nothing more than “a preposterous parade” (25). McCullough does not attempt to mask the difficulties the army endured. He tells, with brutal honesty, the odds they faced and the obstacles they overcame. It details their victory at Boston, their defeat at New York, retreat through New Jersey, and victories at both Princeton and Trenton. McCullough gives an honest summary of the events from the middle of 1775 to the Americans victory at Trenton in three-hundred and eighty six