What We Are Reading Today: 1776 by David McCullough

Updated 09 June 2019
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What We Are Reading Today: 1776 by David McCullough

In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence — when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.

Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality, says a review published on goodreads.com.

It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. 

At the center of the drama, with Washington, are two young American patriots, who, at first, knew no more of war than what they had read in books ­— Nathaniel Green, a Quaker who was made a general at 33, and Henry Knox, a 25-year-old bookseller who had the preposterous idea of hauling the guns of Fort Ticonderoga overland to Boston.


UK entrepreneur says people who disagree with his Palestine solidarity should not shop at his stores

Updated 22 December 2025
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UK entrepreneur says people who disagree with his Palestine solidarity should not shop at his stores

  • Mark Constantine shut all British branches of cosmetics retailer Lush earlier this year in solidarity with Gaza
  • ‘I don’t think being compassionate has a political stance,’ he tells the BBC

LONDON: A British cosmetics entrepreneur has told people who disagree with his support for Palestine not to shop at his businesses.

Mark Constantine is the co-founder and CEO of the Lush chain of cosmetic stores, which temporarily closed all of its UK outlets earlier this year in an act of solidarity with the people of Gaza.

He told the BBC that people should be “kind, sympathetic and compassionate,” that those who are “unkind to others” would not “get on very well with me,” and that anyone who disagrees with his views “shouldn’t come into my shop.”

He told the “Big Boss Interview” podcast: “I’m often called left wing because I’m interested in compassion. I don’t think being compassionate has a political stance.

“I think being kind, being sympathetic, being compassionate is something we’re all capable of and all want to do in certain areas.”

In September, every branch of Lush in the UK, as well as the company’s website, were shut down to show solidarity for the people of Gaza.

A statement on the page where the website was hosted read: “Across the Lush business we share the anguish that millions of people feel seeing the images of starving people in Gaza, Palestine.”

Messages were also posted in the windows of all the shuttered stores, stating: “Stop starving Gaza, we are closed in solidarity.”

Constantine was asked if he thought his views on Gaza could harm his business, and whether people might decide not to deal with him as a result.

“You shouldn’t come into my shop (if you don’t agree),” he said. “Because I’m going to take those profits you’re giving me and I’m going to do more of that — so you absolutely shouldn’t support me.

“The only problem is, who are you going to support? And what are you supporting when you do that? What is your position?”