This book covers the battles and movements of both the British and American armies during 1776, the first year of the Revolutionary War. It focuses particularly on the decisions and motives of General George Washington.

people who like history but don't need too many details.

the book goes beyond just battle layouts and strategies. Most war accounts are frought with pages and pages of details on which battalions and regiments were where and minute-by-minute accounts of the entire engagement. This book doesn't get bogged down there and actually offers a more personal account of how the soldiers lived. The author referred to soldiers' personal diaries and letters numerous times and it was a nice personable look at the war.

The book moves really quickly, which surprised me. I usually slog through nonfiction. I attribute this to the readable prose the author wrote.

The author really focuses on George Washington a LOT. I would have liked to see talk of some of the other Founding Fathers as well. Maybe even more about what the Continental Congress was doing at the same time as these battles were occuring. I expected there to be a lot of discussion about the Declaration of Independence, but it is barely mentioned. Although, admittedly, adding all that extra stuff would make it a much longer book.

I also wanted some better maps or diagrams. When they were talking about battles, it would have been nice to visualize what was going on. The two maps available were historic maps, which is nice in a way, but they didn't illustrate troop movements as well as I wanted them to.

Read something entirely different. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book...but I can only take so much nonfiction and war at one time.

proud to be an American. I felt good that I was reacquainting myself with basic history too. It's been a long time since 10th grade American history class, and it was interesting to see how much I forgot and how much I remembered.

has won the Pulitzer Prize for other titles, so I went into this book with high expectations. His writing style certainly didn't disappoint. He managed to make history very readable, very approachable, even entertaining.

it is important to know our history. What is amazing was just how many close calls we had so early on. One misstep by Washington and no USA. That's a pretty heavy truth, and it makes you really appreciate the sacrifices and risks they were taking back then.

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Created Jun 15, 2006 at 12:31pm • Submit your own review...