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 suffered over the first winter campaign in American military history really puts in perspective how lucky we are to live in the greatest country in the history of the world and just how trivial many of the matters we fight about are in the grand scheme of things.