Learning History with David McCullough
On August 8, beloved historian, author, and narrator David McCullough passed away at the age of 89. We’ve come across some beautiful tributes that praise McCullough “among our greatest historians, writing with an almost magical command of language and story,” testify to his “modesty, kindness, sympathy for the little guy,” and honor him as “America’s historian” and the “chronicler of the American experience.”
Common Sense Society executive vice president David Talbot took a class with David McCullough, and has this anecdote and memento to share from the experience.
As a junior at Hillsdale College, I got to take a two-week course with David McCullough. It was the ultimate Story Time with Grandpa class, Grandpa in this case having a few Pulitzer Prizes. McCullough glowed with wisdom and graciousness. His talks ranged across the chiefly American lives he wrote about so famously. Shortly after graduating, I finished reading McCullough's John Adams biography and visited Adams’ home Braintree. It was likely as close to getting to Adams as possible nowadays, short of doing what McCullough did: read not just everything John Adams ever wrote, but also everything Adams ever read. I wrote McCullough a letter of thanks including a few questions. A picture of his response follows.
Excerpt with full transcription available here.
Dear David,
I appreciate very much that you would take the time to write such a generous thoughtful letter. I am also glad to hear of what you’ve been doing since Hillsdale.
On the matter of John Adam’s favorite poets—that’s a first-rate question, and one I don’t believe I’ve ever been asked before. […]
Here are a few favorites we plan on picking back up this weekend as we remember the life and legacy of David McCullough.
What subject will teach us more than any other “about our country, our people, our past, our heart and soul as civilization”? According to McCullough, it was the American Revolution. “We can never, ever know enough about the American Revolution.” As McCullough reconstructs 1776, he illuminates the role of hope, perseverance, and courage in the struggle for liberty.
The Pulitzer Prize winning biography of John Adams is lengthy but extremely approachable because of McCullough’s gift of storytelling. He doesn’t just recount the events of Adams’ life—he addresses human nature, virtue, ambition, friendship, and the consequences of noble ideas.
In addition to biography, McCullough had a passion for shining a light into the perhaps under appreciated corners of American history. The Pioneers may be about a little settlement in Ohio, but be prepared—you might just learn something about your own community.
David McCullough taught my colleague David and his cohort how to approach history as human—to study an individual’s actions and motivations, what inspired them, all in their historic context. In this way, history truly becomes a story of humanity that we can empathize with, learn, and grow from. This approach does not have to stop at the university campus. Join us, pick up a book this week, and toast to the man who helped us as a country learn to appreciate history.
What a personal and touching story. Even in his response letter, his writing was eloquent and clear, the sentence structure was subpurb, and he was friendly, even gracious. Quite a testament to the man himself.
A wonderful remembrance of an essential historian and a great American.