With the bestsellers “1776” and “John Adams,” David McCullough, in some ways, reinvented the history book.
No longer solely the providence of stuffy academics, the history book, in McCullough’s hands, wove an artful tale that enthralled like a work of fiction and educated like a work of history, all with an elegant and graceful prose.
For better or worse, that will be how most subsequent works of history that reach for a general audience will be measured.
With that in mind, it’s safe to say that “Almost A Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence,” John Ferling’s epic retelling of the American Revolution, won’t be confused with a McCullough work.
That shouldn’t condemn Ferling’s book, though. Few can tell history the way McCullough does, and that doesn’t mean we should discard anything that fails to reach those heights.
Ferling’s book does an admirable job of condensing the Revolution — from its beginnings at Lexington and Concord to its conclusion with the Treaty of Paris — into a largely readable account.
And for those of you who think you have a decent understanding of the Revolution, you might rethink that after reading this book. At nearly 600 pages, it’s a lengthy endeavor, but ultimately a satisfying one as Ferling recreates, in largely readable and accessible prose, just how unlikely a success the Revolution truly was.
Sure, the book has some faults. For one, it could’ve been an easier read if Ferling took the war on a year-by-year basis, instead of a more geographic one. At times, it’s difficult to make sense of what’s going on when the book dips backward in time.
A “Who’s Who” roster at the beginning would’ve been a nice touch, too, because there are so many generals and soldiers on both sides that it’s often difficult to remember 300 pages in who was doing what.
But those are minor quibbles. For a mostly easy-to-follow account of the remarkable founding of this country, and just how surprising it was that those patriots managed to pull it off, spend some time with Ferling’s book. It’ll serve as a nice bookend to the early stages of the Revolution as told in McCullough’s “1776.”