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SACRAMENTO,
Calif. — Few authors have done more to popularize
American history than David McCullough. Not only has the
historian-lecturer made it more accessible than ever, he
has made it sing.
Take
his bestselling 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning “John
Adams,” for instance. The biography of the prickly
founding father had a first printing of 350,000, a
staggering number for a history book and a tribute to
McCullough’s stature. In 2008, the HBO miniseries
“John Adams” took home a load of awards, including
three Golden Globes.
“The
pre-eminent master of narrative history,” as he is
known, has cast an unusual eye on the American landscape
for his subjects: the youth of Theodore Roosevelt
(“Mornings on Horseback”), the construction of the
Brooklyn Bridge (“The Great Bridge”), the marvel of
the Panama Canal (“The Path Between the Seas”), the
dam failure that destroyed a town (“The Jonestown
Flood”). More mainstream were “Truman,” “1776”
and “John Adams.”
Along
the way, McCullough has collected two National Book
Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, a Presidential Medal of
Freedom and two Francis Parkman Prizes from the American
Society of Historians.
Now
comes “The Greater Journey” (Simon&Schuster,
$37.50, 576 pages), chronicling how life in Paris helped
shape the achievements of hundreds of Americans who
lived there between 1830 and 1900.
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“His
books are wonderful contributions to the public
discourse, and they bring a lot of people into thinking
about areas of history they might not otherwise have,”
said Eric Rauchway. He is both a history professor at
the University of California, Davis, and the author of
five books, including “The Great Depression and the
New Deal” (Oxford University Press, $11.95, 160
pages).
“McCullough
benefits tremendously from academic history, and in turn
he gives a lot back by putting forth bold theses that
academics sometimes must reckon with. Such as whether
building the Panama Canal was a good idea,” Rauchway
said. “Beyond that, he serves a valuable role in terms
of talking to the public sphere about the uses of
history.”
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OPTIONAL TRIM)
I
caught up with McCullough, 78, by phone at his Boston
home. He and his wife, Rosalee, have five children and
18 grandchildren.
Q.
Where did the idea for “The Greater Journey”
originate?
A.
When Gene Kelly starred in “An American in Paris,”
that really got to me. I imagined myself as a painter in
Paris (McCullough is a part-time artist), with all the
beautiful girls interested in me.
Many
years later in Paris, I wanted to show that history is
much more than just politics and the military. The idea
that I could concentrate on painting, sculpture,
architecture, literature, medicine and the world of
ideas was more of a draw than just the setting.
Q.
Why was Paris a magnet to Americans of that era?
A.
It was the cultural capital of the world, with a high
standard of education you could not get here. If you
wanted to be better than you were, Paris was the place
to go.
Q.
Who are two of the Americans you write about?
A.
Samuel F.B. Morse went to Paris to perfect himself as a
painter but got the idea for the telegraph. Another was
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., a poet and essayist. He
decided to become a physician and was so affected by
(his teachers in Paris) that he came back and taught at
the Harvard Medical School.
Q.
Are we Americans losing touch with our own history?
A.
Yes, we are, because we’re doing a grossly inadequate
job of teaching history to our children and
grandchildren. I’ve lectured at more than 100
universities and have seen (an ignorance of history)
everywhere. What (students) don’t know is sometimes
almost humorous. It’s not their fault, it’s ours. We
need to do a better job of teaching the teachers.
Q.
Your best advice to students?
A.
Read everything, and try to read a little above what you
think is your level. Read the classics, they’re damn
good.
Q.
Do you watch the History Channel?
A.
I don’t have time for TV, though once in awhile I’ll
watch “The American Experience” on PBS (which he
hosted for 12 years). My spirit plummets when I read
that the average daily time spent watching TV in
American households is seven hours.
Q.
Don’t history-related TV shows give the subject some
exposure?
A.
Sure, they’re better than the drivel that’s on. But
the way to get people involved in history is to get them
reading original letters, diaries and autobiographies.
There’s a wonderful literature of history, too,
(including) “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara,
about the Battle of Gettysburg. And the World War II
novels by Herman Wouk are superb (“The Winds of War”
and “War and Remembrance”).
Q.
It’s said that those who do not learn from history are
doomed to repeat it.
A.
I’m not sure that’s true. Harry Truman said the only
new thing in the world is the history you don’t know.
I think that’s a better quote.
Q.
It’s also said that history is written by the victors.
A.
That’s a vast oversimplification, but, yes, history
does change in perspective as time goes on. All history
is revisionist history because we know what followed.
Otherwise, why write it?
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STORY CAN END HERE)
Q.
Where do we find the purest forms of history?
A.
Architecture is a very pure one, and so are painting and
music. For some civilizations, all we have of their
histories is their art.
History
is the human experience. It’s about people, not just
facts and figures. One of the most effective history
teachers I had in college would not hold us (students)
accountable for any (historic) dates. He said,
“That’s what books are for, you can look them up.”
It was as if he had told me I could put on a pair of
wings and fly. It released me to really start to enjoy
history.
Q.
As a writer, which is more satisfying — the research
or the writing?
A.
The writing is what I take more to heart because it’s
the part that’s all up to me. The research is like
being on a detective case.
When
I write, it’s as if I go into this other time and
place, as if I’m under a spell. In many ways, the
(research subjects) become more real to me than the
people I know in life, because I know so much more about
them. In real life, you don’t get to read other
people’s mail.
Q.
If you could time-travel back to historical era?
A.
I would love to come back here to Boston in the years
just before the Civil War, the late 1850s. I would like
to see the abolitionist movement in full gear, and some
of the intellectual life that was going on. I would love
to meet people like (poet Henry Wadsworth) Longfellow
and (poet-essayist Ralph Waldo) Emerson. And hang out in
a good bar and soak up some of the stories the Irish
were bringing in.
Q.
What will history have to say about you?
A.
I hope it will say, “He tried his hardest.”
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