Scholars of the American Revolution have always emphasized that its leaders had two overriding goals:

	"1776" By David McCullough Simon & Schuster ($32) Related coverage History's lessons inspire David McCullough to repeat the past for posterity

To establish sound governmental institutions, and to defeat the British in order to accomplish that goal.

David McCullough's 2001 biography of John Adams, arguably the revolution's most passionate commentator on how governments could and should be constituted, exposed the author fully to the politics and political thought of the period. Now he addresses military matters. His choice of subject for his new book is thus not surprising.

In his newest volume, McCullough takes the reader from October 1775, when the English government decided to use large-scale military force against open rebellion in its North American Colonies, through the 15 succeeding months. The story ends with the revolution-saving insurgent victories in New Jersey at Trenton and Princeton as 1776 closes.

The future of the country hung in the balance those several months. "1776" provides a first rate account of the events and individuals preventing the balance from swinging decisively toward the British and their loyalist allies in America.

Author David McCullough focuses on a key year in American history. Meet the author David McCullough visits his hometown to promote his book, "1776," on June 6. The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is sponsoring the visit, which will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall, Oakland. Tickets are $10; call 412-622-8866.

McCullough may be America's most widely read historian with best-sellers on the Johnstown Flood, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Panama Canal, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman, which earned him his first Pulitzer Prize. "John Adams" brought him his second in 2002.

In some ways, "1776" is the logical sequel to "John Adams." Both deal with the American Revolution, a subject of perennial interest and increasing popularity these days as Americans rediscover their Founding Fathers.

Why the year 1776? Throughout his career, McCullough has exhibited unusual prescience in selecting what to write about. His choices have included Teddy Roosevelt's childhood, not San Juan Hill, and the accidental President Harry Truman, not his better-known predecessor or successor.

His original plan for what turned out to be the Adams biography was to write parallel lives of Jefferson and Adams, but McCullough somehow sensed early that, for him, Adams was the more compelling figure as well as someone badly treated in most popular historical writing.

That contrapuntal tendency may account for his decision to stop his book at the battle for Princeton, long before the military successes at Saratoga and Yorktown, long before the Continental Army became sufficiently disciplined to provide its leaders much of a chance to exhibit competence, and long before anyone could be certain the revolution would succeed.

That uncertainty provides the central theme of "1776." No one could have predicted the sequence of events that began unfolding as McCullough begins his narrative.

George Washington, the book's leading character, assumed command of an undisciplined melange of volunteer, mostly short-term soldiers whom he and his unpredictable fellow officers attempted to coerce into something deserving the name Continental Army.

The British occupied Boston but decided to leave, in part because of rebel skill in preparation for a siege, in part because they decided New York would serve better as a center for overall North American operations.

Once the enemy's intentions became clear, Washington's army marched southwest to prevent New York's occupation, only to be soundly beaten at Brooklyn Heights, forced to leave Manhattan after retreating across the East River and chased first north, then south by well-trained troops commanded by Sir William Howe.

Even the outcome of the spectacularly successful end-of-year New Jersey raids could not have been predicted.

What distinguishes "1776," however, is not the narrative of events. The basic story has been told countless times before and in much greater detail.

McCullough's greatest strength as a historian stems from his capacity to imagine other people's lives. Each and every player in the 15-month drama comes alive in his hands. The book has no villains; George III, English military leaders, loyalists, deserters from the Continental Army, Hessians, members of the Continental Congress all get sensitive and sympathetic treatment.

There are no heroes, either, at least not before Trenton. At one point, McCullough writes "The Battle of Brooklyn ... had been a fiasco. Washington had proven indecisive and inept. In his first command on a large-scale field of battle, he and his general officers had not only failed, they had been made to look like fools."

Readers of history always end up liking some folks better than others. McCullough humanizes his protagonists and leaves judging to those energetic enough take in what he's written.

One final set of observations: Simon & Schuster deserves congratulations for the production:

Top quality paper, careful proofreading, thoughtfully captioned glossy insert sections -- two in black and white, one in color -- woven binding, a superb index and a photo of McCullough himself. Who could ask for more?