gratitude & hoopla: Feeling Bookish

gratitude & hoopla

"Nothing taken for granted; everything received with gratitude; everything passed on with grace." G. K. Chesterton

21.9.05

Feeling Bookish

Last night I finished reading David McCullough's 1776, a fine book about Washington's successful siege of Boston, then the disasterous battle for New York, the calamitous retreat across New Jersey, and the stunning surprise attack on Trenton on Christmas night. But it's more than mere military history. McCullough vividly portrays the daunting nature of the task that Washington and the fledgling Congress in Philadelphia faced. The rebellion was anything but a foregone conclusion. As I read McCullough's book, I kept putting it down and wondering, "How on earth did they ever pull this off?" As McCullough himself says, "The outcome seemed little short of a miracle."

[Cross-posted at M.O.G. Blog]