My knowledge of the American War of Independence is limited. Hence I enjoyed reading David McCullough’s 1776 over Independence Weekend. It covers the war from the Siege of Boston to the Battles of Trenton and Princeton, and makes impressive use of diaries and personal letters to tell a compelling story. General Washington is portrayed not as a superhuman hero, but as a fallible human being: “He was not a brilliant strategist or tactician, not a gifted orator, not an intellectual…. He had made serious mistakes in judgment. But experience had been his great teacher from boyhood, and in this his greatest test, he learned steadily from experience. Above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake and he never gave up.” What stood out to me was Washington’s incredible ability to maintain an outward veneer of composure and optimism when his correspondence reveals that he was desperately worried for the fate of his inexperienced citizen soldiers who were opposing the strongest military machine in the world. Also, the way he put his career, reputation and life on the line to lead from the front made a lasting impression on me. Nothing can sum this up as well as this first-hand account taken from a letter written by an 18 year old Virginian named James Monroe, a lieutenant in the battered Continental Army that was retreating from New York with the British in pursuit: “I saw him…at the head of a small band, or rather at its rear, for he was always near the enemy, and his countenance and manner made an impression on me which I can never efface….A deportment so firm, so dignified, but yet so modest and composed, I have never seen in any other person” Books with titles like Business Lessons from Churchill, Washington, Lincoln etc are not my cup of Boston tea. However 1776, a sparkling book by a Pulitzer Prize winning historian, has a few timeless leadership lessons embedded within it that really hit home.
My knowledge of the American War of Independence is limited. Hence I enjoyed reading David McCullough’s 1776 over Independence Weekend. It covers the war from the Siege of Boston to the Battles of Trenton and Princeton, and makes impressive use of diaries and personal letters to tell a compelling story. General Washington is portrayed not as a superhuman hero, but as a fallible human being:
“He was not a brilliant strategist or tactician, not a gifted orator, not an intellectual…. He had made serious mistakes in judgment. But experience had been his great teacher from boyhood, and in this his greatest test, he learned steadily from experience. Above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake and he never gave up.”
What stood out to me was Washington’s incredible ability to maintain an outward veneer of composure and optimism when his correspondence reveals that he was desperately worried for the fate of his inexperienced citizen soldiers who were opposing the strongest military machine in the world. Also, the way he put his career, reputation and life on the line to lead from the front made a lasting impression on me. Nothing can sum this up as well as this first-hand account taken from a letter written by an 18 year old Virginian named James Monroe, a lieutenant in the battered Continental Army that was retreating from New York with the British in pursuit:
“I saw him…at the head of a small band, or rather at its rear, for he was always near the enemy, and his countenance and manner made an impression on me which I can never efface….A deportment so firm, so dignified, but yet so modest and composed, I have never seen in any other person”
Books with titles like Business Lessons from Churchill, Washington, Lincoln etc are not my cup of Boston tea. However 1776, a sparkling book by a Pulitzer Prize winning historian, has a few timeless leadership lessons embedded within it that really hit home.