I just finished 1776by David McCullough and it knocked my socks off! I hadn’t read much of McCullough’s stuff before, being a big fan of Stephen Ambrose and an even bigger fan of Paul Johnson and his magnificent masterpiece A History of the American People(this book should be required reading for every 17-year old and immigrant to this country).

I have been studying American History, seriously, for about six years now. I’ve read a lot of books on the subject. But I have never come to “own” the New York campaigns of Washington like I do now. I have gained an enlightenment on the hardships and military choices made on both sides that I did not have prior and would never have had should I not have read this excellent book by McCullough.

I never would have known about Henry Knox’s outrageous trek through the Maine wilderness in the depth of Winter to retrieve and return cannons and other vital supplies back to Washington in Boston.

I never would have known about Washington’s outright luck and cunning mixing together time and time again (along with very strange weather events that are very hard to dismiss as mere chance) to deliver the Continental Army into ultimate victory.

And I never would have gained an appreciation for the hardships our army endured to even make it out of 1776 alive. Some of our forefathers marched 40 miles without shoes, with bloody rags wrapped around their feet just to invade a force of 1,500 Hessian barbarians in the middle of a crazy New Jersey Blizzard.

And to think that we have politicians today who soil the honorable memory of the sacrifices these men made with mealy-mouth pedantic speeches about Social Security and which liar exposed whichever other liar for lying. I could literally sit down and cry out of frustration sometimes…

Get back to basics, my fellow citizens. You can begin by reading this book.

I am so thrilled to see these great books written by historians with a proper command of their subject matter and the ability to deliver it in down-to-earth terms that read like fiction novels but carry far more punch.

General Washington was an extraordinary human being at any length of measure and weight of historical circumstance.

My God, if that he were Commander-in-Chief right now.

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