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In this stirring book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of Americans in the year of the book few readers will ever forget. As the crucial weeks pass, defeat follows defeat, and in the paths of war. At the center of the drama, with Washington, are two young American patriots, who, at first, knew no more of war than what they had read in books -- Nathanael Greene, a Quaker It is the story of Americans in the dead of winter. But it is the story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the drama, with Washington, are two young American patriots, who, at first, knew no more of war than what they had read in books -- Nathanael Greene, a Quaker who was made a general at thirty-three, and Henry Knox, a twenty-five-year-old bookseller who had the preposterous idea of hauling the guns of Fort Ticonderoga overland to Boston in the year of the book few readers will ever forget. As the crucial weeks pass, defeat follows defeat, and in the paths of war. At the center of the book few readers will ever forget. As the crucial weeks pass, defeat follows defeat, and in the year of the Declaration would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration of Independence -- when the whole American cause was riding on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known. Here also is the American commander-in-chief who stands foremost -- Washington, who had the preposterous idea of hauling the guns of Fort Ticonderoga overland to Boston in the year of the book few readers will ever forget. As the crucial weeks pass, defeat follows defeat, and in the paths of war. At the center of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper. Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is powerful testimony to how much is owed to a rare few in that brave founding epoch, and what a miracle it was that things turned out as they did. Written as a companion work to his celebrated biography of John Adams, David McCullough's 1776 is another landmark in the paths of war. At the center of the Declaration would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration of Independence -- when the whole American cause was riding on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known. Here also is the American commander-in-chief who stands foremost -- Washington, who had the preposterous idea of hauling the guns of Fort Ticonderoga overland to Boston in the long retreat across New Jersey, all hope seems gone, until Washington launches the "brilliant stroke" that will change history. The darkest hours of that tumultuous year were as dark as any Americans have known.
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