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1776: An Audio Book Review, by Finneus (January 22, 2012) I don’t care what they say on Good Morning America, most of us just don’t have the time to sit down and read a book. Work, family activities, lawn care, gardens, kids, farm chores, holidays, and projects seem to occupy every scrap of my time. However, audio books afford the opportunity to listen to a book while doing our other chores, or during the drive to and from work. I recently listened to 1776 by Pulitzer Prize winning author and historian David McCullough. The unabridged audio version is a 10 CD set read by the author and runs about 12 hours. The book is a work of non-fiction and is a very frank, yet moving, account of the Revolutionary War from January 1776 to January 1777; or from the British occupation of Boston after the Battle of Bunker Hill to Washington’s crossing of the Delaware and battle at Trenton. 1776 was a pivotal year for the Continental Army and Washington’s command. The war with Britain started the year before at Lexington and Concord as minutemen fired on British troops during their march to seize rebel arms. Later battles at Boston, including Bunker Hill, set the stage for the war to come. During 1776, Washington had to build an army, keep it alive, and hold off the British. His army was a collection of poorly-trained, poorly-equipped, farmers, fishermen, artisans, slaves, and shop keepers who knew little of military tactics and less of taking orders. Staggering illness, enlistment problems, desertions, and no money for arms or pay, constantly plagued Washington and his Army. The colonies were thick with loyalists who reported every detail of the Continental Army’s movements to General Howe, commander of the British forces. It didn’t help that Washington had little knowledge of how to wage war and it showed in his staggering losses as he tried to battle the strongest army on the globe. At every step, McCullough spices the chronological story with excerpts from letters, journals, reports, orders, or other documentation from both American and British sides, reading from them liberally, but not to excess. The story never lagged, even when the war did. There are some graphic accounts, as there will be with war, but McCullough keeps these to a minimum and presents them in a dignified manner. 1776 was a joy to listen to. It is the history class we all wished we’d taken in school. The chronological manner in which the story is told, makes memorizing dates irrelevant. McCullough describes each major player and their background much as a novelist would, making it easy to understand their actions and the methods they employed. My only complaint is that the author didn’t cover the whole war. The year 1776 was certainly a pivotal point in the War for Independence, but given the excellent treatment of that year’s events, a similar text encompassing the entire war would certainly be a welcome work. I was sorry to see 1777 come. |