Dog-eared Books

Title: 1776
Author: David McCullough
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2005
Pages: 400

What did you take from this book?
Our country's strength as a superpower obscures, at times, its truly humble beginnings. I had no idea how completely close to the brink of destruction our fledgling nation came. More than once, quite literally, the only thing that kept our Continental army from complete destruction was luck. While this book dealt mainly with the role and correspondence of Washington to and from his own staff, McCullough managed to widen the scope of this book to give much-needed backgrounds of not only lesser-known American heroes, but also of the English and Hessian commanders. Indeed, every major player -- from England's House of Commons to a 12-year-old volunteer fifer in the Continental army -- is given a chance to weigh in on the events of this tumultuous and infamous year. Thanks to this book, the Fourth of July will never feel quite the same to me ever again. Now, I get it.

What did you tell your friends about this book?
Read this book and you will realize how you've been stiffed by every American history class you've ever taken. If you want to hear the painful and tumultuous truth of how our country came to be, then read this book. You will see how this country wasn't made by hands of gods, as we've built our founders up to be, but by real men and women, fighting, starving and dying for a cause. They weren't perfect. They had doubt. They even pitied themselves at times. But above all, they carried on. They fought for themselves, their beliefs and a better way of life. Let them earn your admiration as you read what they were really like.

Brief Summary:
This book offers some insight into what happened within what was probably the most important and infamous year of this country's life, 1776, using the very words, letters, musings and communication of the men and women who shaped the foundations of our nation.

Neil Golemo, MA '06