The book "1776" changed the way I thought about many many things. It's about the military presence and the early years of the US Colonies and the British presence as well. Everything was so different back then. Getting all those details shows how life was different in almost every way imaginable: people only had 1 or 2 outfits, income taxes of 2% were considered unimaginably high, military only had 9 bullets per soldier, stage plays were the main means of entertainment, bitter cold affected everyone, no communication meant lots of confusion, etc. Lots of great details in that book.