The book has a different texture from the work of academic scholars who are trained in history graduate programs. He tells us that it was a very close-run thing, in which “often circumstance, storms, contrary winds, the oddities or strengths of individual character had made the difference.” The author wants us to remember the Revolution as a desperate struggle against great odds. It ends quickly in a conclusion of four pages that summarize the central theme. The book comes to its climax in 18 pages on the battles of Trenton and Princeton. What follows is a drama in three acts, each about 100 pages: first, the long Siege of Boston from the summer of 1775 to March 1776 then the campaign for control of New York (an epic American disaster) and in Act 3 the army’s long and painful retreat across New Jersey to Pennsylvania. Then the scene shifts abruptly to America. We listen to the parliamentary debates that follow, and are amazed that even friends of America such as Edmund Burke speak of ” ‘our’ colonies,” as if each freeborn British subject owned them all.

We feel the street tremble beneath its enormous weight, “as though the very grandeur, wealth, and weight of the British Empire were rolling past.” We meet the king as a very appealing figure, and are surprised to hear him speak in deep anger of his intent to destroy the American rebellion.

We see the king’s state coach (still surviving in the Royal Mews) in all its exquisite detail.

26, 1775, a bright autumn day when George III rode to Westminster and opened Parliament. He begins with a vivid scene in London on Oct. The McCullough touch is evident from the start. The book is mostly a short military history of George Washington’s American Army from the summer of 1775 to the winter of 1776-77. The main lines are familiar, and most of the anecdotes have been told before, but they have rarely been told so well. More important, we might ask what all of us who read and write history can learn from McCullough’s extraordinary touch with his material.Ī place to begin is his new book, “1776.” It is very fluent and engaging. How does he do it? What is the basis of his broad appeal? Some of my academic colleagues are not entirely happy with his work, and one might also ask why that is so. His other books have done as well, or better. In a nation that is not remarkable for serious reading, McCullough’s biography of John Adams has sold more than a million copies in hardcover. He is most widely known as the avuncular figure that Americans have seen on television, but he is most respected for big and very serious books that have an astonishing appeal.

Few do it with work of such high quality, and in so many media. Of all the many thousands of teachers, writers, and interpreters who make a living as historians in America today, nobody reaches a larger public with more success than David McCullough. Simon & Schuster, 386 pp., illustrated, $32

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