1776
by David McCullough
I ordered this account of the first year of the American Revolution as soon as I read Joshua Micah Marshall's enthusiastic review in the New Yorker. McCullough crafts an exciting, readable, but scholarly account of Washington and his army, from the siege of Boston to disaster in Brooklyn and then, at the last moment, unlooked-for and redemptive success at Trenton and Princeton.
This is essentially the story of Washington and his army and a time when, for the first time, to be an American meant something new and important. Highly recommended reading for Independence Day.