First published 2025
This collection gathers David McCullough's essays on the vital role history plays in shaping our understanding of America. The Pulitzer Prize winner examines political character through leaders like Harry Truman and George Washington, who embodied optimism and determination. McCullough reveals his early literary influences and the mentors who shaped his career. He celebrates figures who inspired his work, including writer Paul Horgan and painter Thomas Eakins, showing how art influenced his historical perspective. Edited by his daughter Dorie McCullough Lawson and researcher Michael Hill after his death, these pieces span his career but focus on a central theme. McCullough argues that we must see history through the eyes of those who lived it to understand both past and present. The collection includes previously unpublished work and features a foreword by Jon Meacham, offering readers McCullough's distinctive approach to American history and ideals.
Genres: 20th-century, biography-memoir, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-figures, mentor
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
192 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster