Posted on 06/30/2006 8:39:52 AM PDT by JSedreporter
We keep coming back to cover commercially published historian David McCullough for a reason: Unlike his academic counterparts, he actually has something to say.
“Many people today are saying that we should be teaching morals in our schools,” McCullough himself said in a lecture earlier this year at Hillsdale College. “They could find support in the closing line of this section of the Commonwealth Constitution, which speaks of the necessity ‘to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings, sincerity, good humor, and all social affections and generous sentiments among the people.’”
The commonwealth McCullough refers to is Massachusetts, where the state supreme court recently managed to find a right to gay marriage in that same document. The author of that original constitution was John Adams, of whom McCullough has written a bestselling biography.
“John Adams was born into a poor farm family,” McCullough told the audience at Hillsdale. “He is often imagined as a rich Boston blueblood.”
“He was none of those.” But then, that is not as interesting a story to history professors who would rather pontificate about “patriarchal hegemony.”
“At a young age, he began to keep a diary—it was about the size of the palm of your hand, and his handwriting so small you need a magnifying glass to read it—with the idea that by reckoning day-by-day his moral assets and liabilities, he could improve himself,” McCullough said in the lecture that Hillsdale compiled in its Imprimis magazine.
How does McCullough know this? Because he held the diary in one hand and a magnifying glass in the other so that he could read it. Can you picture the people’s historian, Howard Zinn, doing that?
And here’s another interesting tidbit that Adams’ chronicler leaves us with. McCullough tells us of Abigail Adams, “Schools were closed so she had to educate the children at home.” Does that make President John Quincy Adams the first homeschooled American to achieve prominence?
Academic icons such as Zinn and the late Richard Hoffstadter of Columbia have long held that America’s founding fathers pursued the revolution to protect their property and prestige. McCullough, who has done considerably more research from primary documents than any of them, comes to a different conclusion.
“When our founders pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor, that wasn’t just rhetoric,” McCullough says. “Keep in mind, too, that they were up against the greatest military power on earth and had very little military experience.”
“They had no money—there wasn’t a bank in all of America in 1776.” Really, if the spry septuagenarian can delve as deeply as he does into America’s archives to recover this country’s past, surely tenured professors half his age could make the effort.
Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.
book ping!
Dang. Here I thought we did a pretty good job of reclaiming American history with our book, "A Patriot's History of the United States" last year. (McCulloch is good, though, as is David Hackett Fischer).
McCullough is one of the best. I have read both John Adams and 1776. If others reading this post can suggest historians with a knack for accuracy (sarc) I would relish hearing your suggestions. History is about all I read and I despise the modern-day embellishment, interpretation, and removal from context and remodeling to fit a modern agenda, that is so prevalent today.
As I recall, and this may be incorrect, God is referred to in the preamble to the Massachusetts constitution as "that great legislator in the sky."
Too bad it's in MA. John Adams would be shocked at what his successors are doing to his once fine commonwealth.
H.W. Brands' newest book on Jackson is great. I am just finishing off William C. Davis' "The Pirates Lafitte" about the pirates in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 1800s. Davis is primarily a southern historian. His book on Jefferson Davis is definitive.
Civil War: Stephen W. Sears
Early America: Joseph Ellis (a few Freepers might disagree on that one but I enjoy his books)
Jackson-era: Robert Remini
General American History: Paul Johnson "A History of the American People."
You did, trust me!
;-)
I'd strongly recommend both of my books, "A Patriot's History of the United States," and my recent book, "America's Victories: Why the U.S. Wins Wars and Will Win the War on Terror."
Can you or any other here recommend some good, honest written works regarding this time period (just before, during and just after 1776).
Can you recommend a good book(s) about the Reconstruction Period?
I'll have to pick those two up when I have a chance. I'm down to two books behind where I want to be. When I catch up, I head to the bookstore and go nuts.
Hehe. Thanks. If I'm ever in the area, I'll be happy to sign them.
I also recommend "Washington's Crossing" by David Hackett Fischer.
McCullough's "John Adams" is always good.
Also try Joseph Ellis' "Founding Brothers" and Bernard Weisberger's "America Afire" about the election of 1804.
McCullough's book 1776 is good. I think Ellis is a bit too subject to his own interpretation of how historical figures were thinking. Ellis may be a mind-reader, but I question his ability to read the mind of someone that lived 200 years ago. :)
Let me note that Patriot's History is "special order" only at Barnes & Noble now, because they wanted us to go paperback. We reluctantly agreed, but it won't be out in paper until next March. In the meantime, it's best to get that one at Borders or on Amazon.
LS
Thank you all for the excellent suggestions. How do I post to more than one person? What is the mechanism?
Hans Trefousse wrote a very good biography of Andrew Johnson that details his battles with Sumner, Stevens and the Radicals over reconstruction.
Something that explores a bit of the end of reconstruction is Roy Morris, Jr.'s book "Fraud of the Century" about the Hayes-Tilden election.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.