1776

[Snow]

Did history as learned in school bore you?

I know a cure for that. David McCullough’s 1776 is as good a book as I have read in a long time. It is no mystery why this guy is a two-time Pulitzer prize winner.

The book focuses on the year 1776 with Washington and his army taking center stage. It starts post Bunker Hill with the American’s outsmarting the British to take back control of Boston, then on to New York where we suffer 4 devastating defeats. Then Washington and what’s left of his army, some 3000 plus men (out of what was once 20,000) march towards Philadelphia, leaving a trail of blood from their shoeless feet in the snow. They crossed an made camp on the far side of the Delaware river. Certainly Thomas Paine expressed it best: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot may, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

The rebel army was on the verge of dissolution from illness, lack of supplies and equipment, not the least of which was shoes, ends of enlistment duration, death, defeat and the cold icy winter. As I read the book, and of course we all know how it ends, I was filled with excitement and anticipation. I would tell my son - Hey, I think this is the good part, I can’t remember everything but doesn’t something cool happen at the Delaware? He said - Yeah, the part with the German Mercenaries, the Hessians - its the best part of the whole war.

It’s better than a novel - mucho better.

Until you study up a bit on Washington you can’t appreciate what a truly magnificent man His Excellency was. McCullough tells the story well. Lots of interesting bits about lots of interesting characters. One of my favorites was General Putnam. As I recall, James Putman was short, round with a thick neck and a head like a canon ball. He spoke with a lisp and could barely write his name, but it was said of Ole Put: He feared nothing. While riding his horse through camp one day he asked a solider to move a stone out of the path. The man replied: “Sir, I am a corporal.” Put replies, “Oh, I ask your pardon sir.” Gets down off his horse and to the applause and cheers of the men in camp, moves the stone himself.

I have already used stories from the book in a Priesthood lesson and in a meeting at work with the supervisors that report to me. I got all misty-eyed telling the stories and so did some listening to them.

This is good stuff and I recommend it.

Note: If you live by a good library you might be able to get it on cassett tape as read by the author. I have heard him in an interview with Roger Mudd and he has a wonderful voice.

President Hinckley recently read the book.