There’s a thread about Olivia Newton-John, but not yet one about McCullough, so I thought I’d start one.
I discovered him when someone gave me a copy of The Great Bridge (about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge) when I was ill and bed-ridden. I devoured the book, and bought The Path Between the Seas (the Panama Canal) as soon as it came out. Then I backtracked his career and read The Johnstown Flood. I’ve read all his books but one, many more than once.
He was eminently readable. I recall that during the debacle over the Smithsonian’s Hiroshima exhibit some historians derided him as “not really a historian”, but, having written some history myself, I don’t think that’s correct. My only beef with McCullough is that he seemed to have a deep dislike for the musical 1776. It shows in his books John Adams (which doesn’t mention the play among the modern works on the second president) and his own book 1776.
He was also a great narrator for PBS specials, and for reading his own audiobooks (His audiobook of Truman is notable for including many recorded speeches, not to mention a recording of Truman at the piano over the closing credits.)
I would’ve liked another couple books from him, even when I disagreed.
