8/2/2019 Getting the truth right: David McCulloughs 1776

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Prolific McCulloughculls modern lessonsfrom America's past

JULY 2005 The Costco Connection 45

offer a palpable sense of what life was like inearlier t imes. His readers would experiencehistory as"a great source of strength and pleasure, the way art and music and li tyrature area source of pleasure, a way of enlarging thehuman experience."

McCullough experienced a gorgeous surprise: that the Founding Fathers were allyoungmen in 1776. McCullough's voice crescendoswith passion: "What audacity. What elan andnerve it took to do what they did. And noneof them had had any experience in fighting arevolution. Washington had never led an army

in his life. None of them had any experiencein nation-making, but they did it. Theybrought it off.And the more you know aboutwhat happened in 1776, the more you comeaway with the conclusion that i t's a miracle i tever happened."

There's the lesson history has for us.McCullough says, "Don't lose your nerve.Don't lose heart. Remember who you are andwhere you've come from, and how you got towhere you are, and that other people havebeen through worse and you can go throughit, too, and you can keep your head, and youcan build for the future."

Whatever your battle is,McCullough seems

to be saying, you can win it. Imagine howclose we came to saluting a Union Jack. [~

Diana Jordan (www.dianajordan.net)interviews hundreds of authors for her showBetween the Lines, which airs nationally dailyon theAssociated PressRadio Network.

r The Costco Connection, 1776 is available in most Costcoarehouses and at costco.com.II

in the darkest of times, and 1776was,in manyways, the darkest passage in the history ofour country;' he tells The Connection. "Theprospects for the United States of Americanever looked so bleak as they did in the lastmonths of 1776."

This is why McCullough is so drawn tothis particular time in history:"Because I think it shows that we

have come through much moredifficult t imes than we know and

than we're experiencing now. It'stime that we know more about

what all they went through and towhat degree we should be eternally grateful to them:'

McCullough saysthat GeorgeWashington was a superb judgeof character, a born leader whomade mistakes and learned from

them. Washington never forgotwhat he was fighting for. But had

there been polls in 1776, they would haveshown Washington with zero chance of succeeding. "Integrity and character do countin the long, run. And sometimes they canchange history," says McCullough. "That'swhat happened here."

McCullough sees those qualities as benchmarks for his own contribution asa historian.

He wants to get the truth right, so that if thepeople he's writing about-Washington, JohnAdams, Patrick Henry and the others whosememoirs, diaries, letters, speeches and otherrecords he's viewed-were sitting on a jury,they would say, "He's got it right; yes, heunderstands; he gets it."

McCullough claims, with a smile in hisvoice, that he's a long-range optimist-and ashort-range pessimist. And, if he could scripthis own legacy, McCullough's history would

Getting ttJe

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By Diana JordanDAVID MCCULLOUGH'S sublime diction

dances with picturesque words, perfectly conveying the 18th century-even as 21st-century fire engines wail in the background.

This historian delights in writing biographies (Truman, John Adams), but, even more,he loves delving into how the personalities ofordinary people played a part inpivotal events, as in his newestbook, 1776.McCullough has wonawards, including the PulitzerPrize, for half of his eight books.

McCullough, who lives on

Martha's Vineyard, is an occasionally reluctant member of the21st century. He has been working in the 18th century for thepast decade-traveling about,reading more than 70 diaries. Hesays, "I have a wonderful line of

work wherein I get to read other David McCulloughpeople's mail and read theirdiaries." He confides that he tells his wife,Rosalee, "I like the 18th century so much, I'mgoing to stay there!"

McCullough is passionately stirred by"the heartfelt letters and diaries of the farmersand shoemakers and others who believed

in the cause and were ready to stay with it,[but] not everyone was a hero." Thousandsof colonists defected, retreated, quit the fightfor independence.

Even in conversation, McCullough has anexquisite gift of standing inside the hearts ofhistorical characters-such as General GeorgeWashington and General Nathanael Greene,one of the most trusted generals of theRevolutionary army-while standing on asoapbox at the same time.

"The heroes are the people who wouldn'tgive up, who absolutely would not quit, even