Charles L. Dumas
1776: Gifts from the American Revolution is an illuminating yet condensed history of The United States of America starting with the Puritan’s arrival in 1620 at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. As well as covering our Revolution and the creation of the Constitution the book also devotes separate chapters to Blacks and slavery, and to Native Americans and their Trail of Tears across the continent. As well, Hispanics, who also have not had it easy, were here in the Southwest before 1620 and are covered in another chapter. History is not history if it cherry picks and ignores the bad and Uncle Sam has had his share of it.Later chapters build on the achievements of the Revolution by covering diverse but related topics such as; Politics today; Faith; Religions; World Wars, Debt, the infamous ’summer of love, and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Chapter 21 on Faith is the author’s attempt to clarify and strengthen his faith by developing an explanation of how Evolution and Creation are the same. Reading and parsing the Bible, the world’s most important book, can become difficult and controversial as this approach reveals.Section 5 is devoted to Energy and Climate in 6 chapters. The focus in this section is about the expensive and unnecessary policy of forcing renewals by government actions to eliminate fossil fuels. The consequences to our nation from the abject failure to consider what it will take to make that transition are bared for all to read. The book concludes with some gnarly bits called Gems and Nuggets in Chapter 38. These are simply earthy statements of obvious truths intended to galvanize thought. Often complicated subjects grow into swamp like morasses. Problems become more soluble when made simple.Chapter 39 is a one page admonition aimed at young people that, if followed, provides some pithy but important keys to success.
