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David McCullough makes history come alive! Oh! That history were taught this way rather than just dates. Real people lived and determined history. Knowing them aids is in knowing history.
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Short stories of some fairly well known individuals, and others more obscure; at least to me. McCullough never offensive, rarely pushes the reader in any direction, he reports facts and then allows you your opinion. If he wants to emphasize a point he is splendid at analogies. In this book though he does take the time to educate the public on the importance of history in our world, he laments the fact that that there hasn't been enough educating people on the working and individuals in the House and Senate. In fact he feels lessons in history should be mandatory for presidents.
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This book of biographical sketches seems analogous to the Bonus material on DVDs. I don't know if this is true, but it feels like getting "extra" information that couldn't be included in the hefty tomes he had written.
While listening, it was fun to match up the subjects with McCullough books I've already read. He brings life to people who lived long ago; they become familiar and knowable. Books, music, art, historical locations were all referenced. I am tempted to get the print edition from the library in order to follow up on these. Alas, my TBR list is already a tall and looming mountain.
While listening, it was fun to match up the subjects with McCullough books I've already read. He brings life to people who lived long ago; they become familiar and knowable. Books, music, art, historical locations were all referenced. I am tempted to get the print edition from the library in order to follow up on these. Alas, my TBR list is already a tall and looming mountain.
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Review to come.
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Interesting mix of essays on various Americans and on their great achievements. From the construction of the Panama Railway to the Brooklyn Bridge, to photographing the America that is vanishing.
McCullough culled through decades of essays to compile this book. Some were more interesting to me than others- but all of the essays made me think about how far the imagination can take us.
McCullough culled through decades of essays to compile this book. Some were more interesting to me than others- but all of the essays made me think about how far the imagination can take us.
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For me this is yet another book by David McCullough in my quest to read all his books. This one is very interesting, in that in it he has compiled several essays mostly from magazine articles giving accounts of exceptional individuals he has researched through his writing experience. Each is very inspiring. McCullough brings some little reported stories of some well known and some obscure personalities. This quote from his introduction displays the heart of his style in bringing these “Portraits in History” to the pages of this book:
“It is a shame that history is ever made dry and tedious, or offered as a chronicle almost exclusively of politics, war, and social issues, when, of course, it is the full sweep of human experience: politics, war, and social issues to be sure, but also music, science, religion, medicine, the way things are made, new ideas, high attainments in every field, money, the weather, love, loss, endless ambiguities and paradoxes and small towns you never heard of. History is a spacious realm. Their should be no walls…What History is all about is life…”
Having read “Brave Companions” I am fascinated by most of the persons and stories McCullough presents and some particularly interest me.
Frederic Remington illustrated a series of articles by Theodore Roosevelt later published in the book, “Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail”. I have ordered a copy of this book first published in 1888.
It seems every time I read a book, I am inclined, as I gain knowledge of writers and other books, to read several more books. In reading about the aviators as authors in chapter nine, I want to read their books. Now after discovering the person and works of Conrad Richter in chapter 10, I am anxious to read even more—so many books; so little time.
David McCullough sought out Conrad Richter and considered him his friend. The great author of this generation honors a great author of the generation before him in this writing. And McCullough did it well. As he says, “…this is a personal reminiscence, not a review or literary appraisal.”
I want to read Conrad Richter’s trilogy: “The Trees, The Fields”, and “The Town” all issued in one volume under the title, “The Awakening Land”.
In Chapter 13 David McCullough tells of a day trip he took with celebrated and award-winning photographer and author David Plowden. McCullough shows a lot about the style and personality of Plowden. I enjoyed reading this account very much, almost having a vicarious experience. I love to be on the road and to visit towns along the way. Plowden’s photography centers on the places, buildings, homes and other structures, even steel mills. He loves talking and writing about his encounters. This is a wonderful read.
Before reading this, I had not heard of David Plowden, but now want to explore his photography and read his books. While I type out this review, I am listening to James Taylor’s song, “Our Town”. Google David Plowden and explore his wonderful black and white Photography. This is the stuff to really like!
“It is a shame that history is ever made dry and tedious, or offered as a chronicle almost exclusively of politics, war, and social issues, when, of course, it is the full sweep of human experience: politics, war, and social issues to be sure, but also music, science, religion, medicine, the way things are made, new ideas, high attainments in every field, money, the weather, love, loss, endless ambiguities and paradoxes and small towns you never heard of. History is a spacious realm. Their should be no walls…What History is all about is life…”
Having read “Brave Companions” I am fascinated by most of the persons and stories McCullough presents and some particularly interest me.
Frederic Remington illustrated a series of articles by Theodore Roosevelt later published in the book, “Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail”. I have ordered a copy of this book first published in 1888.
It seems every time I read a book, I am inclined, as I gain knowledge of writers and other books, to read several more books. In reading about the aviators as authors in chapter nine, I want to read their books. Now after discovering the person and works of Conrad Richter in chapter 10, I am anxious to read even more—so many books; so little time.
David McCullough sought out Conrad Richter and considered him his friend. The great author of this generation honors a great author of the generation before him in this writing. And McCullough did it well. As he says, “…this is a personal reminiscence, not a review or literary appraisal.”
I want to read Conrad Richter’s trilogy: “The Trees, The Fields”, and “The Town” all issued in one volume under the title, “The Awakening Land”.
In Chapter 13 David McCullough tells of a day trip he took with celebrated and award-winning photographer and author David Plowden. McCullough shows a lot about the style and personality of Plowden. I enjoyed reading this account very much, almost having a vicarious experience. I love to be on the road and to visit towns along the way. Plowden’s photography centers on the places, buildings, homes and other structures, even steel mills. He loves talking and writing about his encounters. This is a wonderful read.
Before reading this, I had not heard of David Plowden, but now want to explore his photography and read his books. While I type out this review, I am listening to James Taylor’s song, “Our Town”. Google David Plowden and explore his wonderful black and white Photography. This is the stuff to really like!
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McCullough wrote about people and events he encountered researching his other great books. Some of these people are personal companions he has met. He points out the influences people have on others and history. I did like his chapter on W.D.C. and the books about it. He said the books you read in the next ten years will be the most important of your life, so Read On!
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Really liked this collection of articles about some people who made a difference in America.
Great colorful details and intriguing history. Uplifting and positive, overall.
McCullough adds to our national culture in immeasurable ways.
Great colorful details and intriguing history. Uplifting and positive, overall.
McCullough adds to our national culture in immeasurable ways.
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Delightful vignettes of people famous and not-so-famous and should-be-famous. McCullough makes you want to know more of these people. He also includes chapters on Washington,DC, and the twentieth century. I think I want to read more history, now.
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David McCullough is a favorite author of mine. I have read a number of books, although I still have yet to launch into his biography of Truman. This particular book is smaller in size and contains relatively short essay on random individuals and subjects.
Some of these feel like ancillary materials to other books that he wrote -- The Steam Road to El Dorado is a preamble to his "The Path Between the Seas," while Glory Days in Medina seems to include some material that was gathered for "Mornings on Horseback." There are random vignettes of Louis Agassiz, Baron von Humboldt and Harriet Beecher Stowe. There are accounts touching on visits he made to David Plowden, Miriam Rothschild and Conrad Richter. There is a commencement speech that McCullough gave in 1986 to Middlebury College in Vermont.
The book itself is relatively short, and the subjects are touched on in brief manner. Perhaps it would be a nice introduction for readers who struggle to wade through lengthy biographies like John Adams or Truman.
There is a sense of nostalgia that lies deep in the lines that McCullough wrote. The beginning of the chapter, "The Builders" conveys the feeling of a time just out of memory and the men -- scoundrels and heroes -- who combined to bring this bridge to pass.
They are all gone now -- the Roeblings and the assistant engineers Collingwood, Paine, Probasco, Hidenbrand, C.C.Martin; and the Brooklyn contractor, plain, blunt William Kingsley, who started things rolling and lined his pokcets nowhere near so well as he might have; and "Boss" Tweed and "Brains" Sweeny, who had an "understanding" with Kingsley, and might have made a fortune had the ring not collapsed in 1871...
The chapter on David Plowden is beautiful to me. I grew up in the country in the Midwest. I know these streets with their empty store fronts and can scent the smell of the corn right before it tassels. I remember the straight roads with scarcely a vehicle on them stretching out between fields of corn and beans to the distant horizon. McCullough somehow captures that in just a few short pages.
Only last night, in his study at Winnetka, as we were looking through some of his prints, he was talking about the people in a photograph in which there are no people. "It speaks of people," he said. "That street speaks of all the people who were there -- always. And I want people... I want them to hear their own footsteps as they walk down that street and to occupy that particular space without my filling it with characters. Because I think you would be more interested in them -- the characters -- than in their space. But if the space is there... the street is there by itself... I think you will occupy it. It's like a stage set, you become the actor."
Most of these are glimpses of the not-so-distant past. They are things that happened within the memories of our great-grandparents or great-great grandparents and yet, despite their recency, they remain almost unknown.
I loved the way he drops names of books throughout his chapters, sprinkling them on to entice the reader to branch out and discover other writers. Anne Lindbergh is a new name to me as an author and yet, I plan to search out "North to the Orient" because of his brief chapter on the early aviators. I have begun to read Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery because of its mention here as well.
So many other books are mentioned in passing that it feels like this book is a bit like opening a door into a world populated by Barabara Tuchman and Gene Smith, and Margaret Leech -- authors who touched McCullough in some way and who now demand exploration.
He is always quick with a little bit of wit.
Harry Truman used to talk of Potomac Fever, an endemic disorder the symptoms of which were a swelled head and a general decline of common sense. Were you only to read about such cases and not see them with your own eyes, you might not appreciate what he meant.
There is sorrow for a past that is lost, glimpses of men and women who weren't quite heroes, and people who died pursuing some sort of calling. As McCullough came to close his book, he sounded a cautious note of hope. The 20th century was full of wars and dictators. The promise of equality for all has not been achieved. And yet, the clock of Simon Willard still keeps the time.
It is also a clock with two hands and an old-fashioned face, the kind that shows what time it is now... and what time it used to be... and what time it will become...
And it still keeps time.
On we go.
Perhaps the best accolade I can give this book is that it made me desire more. To read more of McCullough's books until that supply is exhausted, but to read the authors who touched him and the authors who touched those authors and so on ad infinitum.
Some of these feel like ancillary materials to other books that he wrote -- The Steam Road to El Dorado is a preamble to his "The Path Between the Seas," while Glory Days in Medina seems to include some material that was gathered for "Mornings on Horseback." There are random vignettes of Louis Agassiz, Baron von Humboldt and Harriet Beecher Stowe. There are accounts touching on visits he made to David Plowden, Miriam Rothschild and Conrad Richter. There is a commencement speech that McCullough gave in 1986 to Middlebury College in Vermont.
The book itself is relatively short, and the subjects are touched on in brief manner. Perhaps it would be a nice introduction for readers who struggle to wade through lengthy biographies like John Adams or Truman.
There is a sense of nostalgia that lies deep in the lines that McCullough wrote. The beginning of the chapter, "The Builders" conveys the feeling of a time just out of memory and the men -- scoundrels and heroes -- who combined to bring this bridge to pass.
They are all gone now -- the Roeblings and the assistant engineers Collingwood, Paine, Probasco, Hidenbrand, C.C.Martin; and the Brooklyn contractor, plain, blunt William Kingsley, who started things rolling and lined his pokcets nowhere near so well as he might have; and "Boss" Tweed and "Brains" Sweeny, who had an "understanding" with Kingsley, and might have made a fortune had the ring not collapsed in 1871...
The chapter on David Plowden is beautiful to me. I grew up in the country in the Midwest. I know these streets with their empty store fronts and can scent the smell of the corn right before it tassels. I remember the straight roads with scarcely a vehicle on them stretching out between fields of corn and beans to the distant horizon. McCullough somehow captures that in just a few short pages.
Only last night, in his study at Winnetka, as we were looking through some of his prints, he was talking about the people in a photograph in which there are no people. "It speaks of people," he said. "That street speaks of all the people who were there -- always. And I want people... I want them to hear their own footsteps as they walk down that street and to occupy that particular space without my filling it with characters. Because I think you would be more interested in them -- the characters -- than in their space. But if the space is there... the street is there by itself... I think you will occupy it. It's like a stage set, you become the actor."
Most of these are glimpses of the not-so-distant past. They are things that happened within the memories of our great-grandparents or great-great grandparents and yet, despite their recency, they remain almost unknown.
I loved the way he drops names of books throughout his chapters, sprinkling them on to entice the reader to branch out and discover other writers. Anne Lindbergh is a new name to me as an author and yet, I plan to search out "North to the Orient" because of his brief chapter on the early aviators. I have begun to read Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery because of its mention here as well.
So many other books are mentioned in passing that it feels like this book is a bit like opening a door into a world populated by Barabara Tuchman and Gene Smith, and Margaret Leech -- authors who touched McCullough in some way and who now demand exploration.
He is always quick with a little bit of wit.
Harry Truman used to talk of Potomac Fever, an endemic disorder the symptoms of which were a swelled head and a general decline of common sense. Were you only to read about such cases and not see them with your own eyes, you might not appreciate what he meant.
There is sorrow for a past that is lost, glimpses of men and women who weren't quite heroes, and people who died pursuing some sort of calling. As McCullough came to close his book, he sounded a cautious note of hope. The 20th century was full of wars and dictators. The promise of equality for all has not been achieved. And yet, the clock of Simon Willard still keeps the time.
It is also a clock with two hands and an old-fashioned face, the kind that shows what time it is now... and what time it used to be... and what time it will become...
And it still keeps time.
On we go.
Perhaps the best accolade I can give this book is that it made me desire more. To read more of McCullough's books until that supply is exhausted, but to read the authors who touched him and the authors who touched those authors and so on ad infinitum.
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Overall, an interesting book. However, only some of the stories appealed to me, in particular that piece on the Panama Railroad and the Brooklyn Bridge. Some of the pieces were somewhat boring, pedantic and preachy.
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This is a collection of McCullough's essays mostly about prominent figures and interesting folks. Topics include, but are not limited to:
German scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt
19th-century scientist and educator Louis Agassiz
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin
Theodore Roosevelt and the Marquis de Mores as relates their time in North Dakota in the 1880s
Western artist Frederic Remington
Construction of the original Panama Railway in the 1850s
Engineer John A. Roebling and his son, Washington Roebling, architects of the Brooklyn Bridge
Early aviators Charles Lindbergh, Antoine de Saint Exupéry, and Beryl Markham
American author Conrad Richter
Author and anti-strip mining political activist Harry M. Caudill
English zoologist and entomologist Miriam Rothschild
American photographer David Plowden
Overall, it's a bit of a mixed bag and you never get your teeth into a subject herein quite like you do in other McCullough books. All the same, I love the man's stuff and this isn't bad at all. It would make a great primer for those who want to be exposed to some historical personages who they perhaps have not discovered yet.
German scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt
19th-century scientist and educator Louis Agassiz
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin
Theodore Roosevelt and the Marquis de Mores as relates their time in North Dakota in the 1880s
Western artist Frederic Remington
Construction of the original Panama Railway in the 1850s
Engineer John A. Roebling and his son, Washington Roebling, architects of the Brooklyn Bridge
Early aviators Charles Lindbergh, Antoine de Saint Exupéry, and Beryl Markham
American author Conrad Richter
Author and anti-strip mining political activist Harry M. Caudill
English zoologist and entomologist Miriam Rothschild
American photographer David Plowden
Overall, it's a bit of a mixed bag and you never get your teeth into a subject herein quite like you do in other McCullough books. All the same, I love the man's stuff and this isn't bad at all. It would make a great primer for those who want to be exposed to some historical personages who they perhaps have not discovered yet.
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