# David McCullough dies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [August 9, 2022, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-mccullough-dies/969359 "2022-08-09T12:26:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-mccullough-dies/969359/1 "2022-08-09T12:26:09Z")
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. > **[Pulitzer Prize winning historian David McCullough has died](https://www.npr.org/2022/08/08/1116337415/historian-david-mccullough-died)** > > He wrote acclaimed books about Harry Truman and John Adams, along with the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal. He also was the authoritative voice narrating TV films such as The Civil War in 1990. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-mccullough-dies/969359/2 "2022-08-09T13:50:46Z")
He was _American Experience_ to me. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-mccullough-dies/969359/3 "2022-08-09T14:19:07Z")
He was without doubt, my favorite non-fiction writer. 😔 ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-mccullough-dies/969359/4 "2022-08-09T14:42:41Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > some historians derided him as “not really a historian” OT, but way too common and always annoying; usually said by jealous academics who expound on “original sources” when they’re padding with George Washington’s grocery list. Unless we’re discussing David Irving, it just comes off as petty whining. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-mccullough-dies/969359/5 "2022-08-09T14:59:47Z")
I loved watching his series on the Smithsonian back in the '80s. For a while, it was the high point of my weekend. RIP, David. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-mccullough-dies/969359/6 "2022-08-09T19:15:18Z")
Definitely one of my favorites. He had an ease to his writing that more academic historians lacked. Ron Chernow’s biographies are impossible to read by comparison. His first book appeared in 1968. That’s a good long career.