Narrative history of the year 1776, following George Washington and the Continental Army from the siege of Boston through the disastrous defense of New York, the retreat across New Jersey, and the crossing of the Delaware to the counterstrokes at Trenton and Princeton.
Books mentioned in 1776 (5)
Common Sense by Thomas Paine: “This he attributed in good part to the pamphlet Common Sense, published earlier in the year, the author of which, Thomas Paine, was as yet unknown.”
Henry V by William Shakespeare: “Graydon could never recall that night without thinking of the scene in Shakespeare's Henry V of the long night wait before the Battle of Agincourt”
The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker by Tobias Smollett: “In a popular English novel of the day, The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker, Tobias Smollett wrote...”
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke: “Nathanael read Caesar and Horace in English translation, Swift, Pope, and Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding.”
Memoirs Concerning the Art of War by Maurice de Saxe: “the first of all qualities [of a general] is courage, he read in the Memoirs Concerning the Art of War by Marshal Maurice de Saxe”