David McCullough helped me appreciate historical non-fiction. And the first book I read of his was 1776. I stumbled across the book at a Costco and it looked interesting. I didn’t know his name at that time and I didn’t know he had twice won the Pulitzer Prize for his history writing. I had only recently begun writing a local history newspaper column so I thought I would get the book to see how others handled history.
It was a good move on my part. McCullough is now one of my favorite writers.
1776 is the story of a crucial year in America’s history. It isn’t dates and events like you read in history book. It is the story of George Washington and those early colonists who followed them. It shows the despair as Americans faced their darkest hours in the face of an overwhelming force.
The book reads like an adventure novel. The fact that the book is short of both a McCullough book and a history book helps. McCullough keeps his focus on the army without being distracted by many of the other things that were going on during the war. You get caught up with the dangers the characters face. Even knowing the outcome, you still worry as you’re reading that something will go wrong.
1776 shows that McCullough definitely deserves his title as the master of the historical narrative.
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