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Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough discusses the concepts of history and the humanities and the role they play in a democracy.
“Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history,” it’s been said, “are destined to repeat them.”
Unfortunately, for many students the study of American history means memorizing dates and dry facts about long-dead political figures.
Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough has an idea how to make past events more interesting: “[Students] want to learn, and there’s no problem getting young people interested in history. Barbara Tuchman said it perfectly in two words, ‘Tell stories,’” McCullough said. “That’s the way to teach history.”
McCullough should know. He has been credited with reawakening Americans’ interest in history through his acclaimed historical accounts.
“We have a generation of young people who are historically illiterate. This is a serious problem,” McCullough has said. “We’ve got to start talking about history with our children and in front of our children. We’ve got to encourage them to read good books about history, books that a person would want to read.”
From learning about the hundred-year saga of the American governance of the Panama Canal to discovering the private achievements and frailties of an unpopular president, McCullough’s history books – which read more like novels – have rekindled interest in reading history and have made him one of nation’s most successful historians.
His books have been praised for their exceptional narrative sweep, scholarship and insight into American life, as well as their literary distinction. His most recent work hit the New York Times best-seller list at number one and has remained there for more than a year.
McCullough’s first book, “The Johnstown Flood,” captivated the nation in 1968 with his account of the devastation of a small Pennsylvania community. Since then, McCullough has written six more books – “The Great Bridge,” “The Path Between the Seas,” “Mornings on Horseback,” “Brave Companions,” “Truman” and “John Adams.”
Along the way, he has earned two Pulitzer Prizes (for “Truman” in 1993 and “John Adams” in 2002), two National Book Awards, a Charles Frankel Prize and two Francis Parkman Prizes from the American Society of Historians.
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