Thank you Simon and Schuster and Netgalley to read the final book by David McCullough. as predicted it was really well done. Instead of a singular focus this book is a collection of essays speeches and thoughts. He talks about JFK, Truman and Washington as well as individuals who were important to his life and growth. The last part of the book is how he wrote, what he liked to read and the works he felt were important . He wrote about his love of history. It was quite different than the normal history book

"History Matters" is a book of writings by David McCulloch, compiled after Mr. McCulloch's death by his daughter/assistant/and researcher, Dorrie McCullough Dawson. Ms. Dawson is sharing some terrific essays, speeches, articles, interviews, and stories about writing, from what must be a massive archive, given how many books Mr. McCulloch published in his long life. It's a fascinating look at how he chose his topics, honed his craft, and considered the impact of history on today. Highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I just finished an ARC of History Matters by David McCullough. I had never read McCullough before, but as someone who loves history, this book felt like a love letter—full of adoration, care, and passion for the subject. It captured exactly why I want to study history: it’s also a tribute to art, literature, and education, written with masterful skill.

I’m taking one star off for the dip in narrative during the final section, which shifts into essays about historical icons. For readers devoted to McCullough’s work, those essays will likely hold great meaning, but for me they pulled away from the flow of the book.

Overall, this is a gorgeous tribute to a man and his love of his craft. I can’t wait for its release so I can reference it in school and beyond.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this collection of essays ranging across time and substance by an author whose love of understanding the why of both people, events and even objects created books that educate, and more importantly make us hope for better and dream to be better.

I was working at an independent bookstore when a big tome on Harry Truman came out. My knowledge on Truman was that he was President for World War II and Korea, and the subject of a assassination attempt. That was my interest in history at the time, war, assassination and disasters. The book was so big only one copy could fit on the shelf for New Releases, and that was right over the cash wrap area, which made for some nervous times when the door would be slammed. That book would hurt. I could not get over the fact that people would be interested in a book that big about a president that did so little. A quiet Sunday gave me the chance to start reading, and I suddenly my interest in not only Truman grew, but so did the idea of what history was, and what it could be. This when I also became interested in the works of David McCullough. Within a few pages one could tell that McCullough loved knowledge, loved to share it. That history to him was more than facts and figures, it was life. Life made the person, life made the events, and events changed us in ways that even years later we were still dealing with. History, no matter how we hide it, change it, disguise it, call it fake, means something. History Matters by David McCullough is a collection featuring articles, interviews, speeches, and other thoughts by this great writer on himself, America, people, and of course his typewriter.

The book was compiled by McCullough's daughter and assistant for thirty years, and McCullough's researcher for almost forty years. The book features college commencement speeches, articles, an interview, stories about writing, getting his ideas and about where McCullough became interested in history. There is a speech about the George Washington being the pinnacle of Americanism. Stories of success for graduates, and the importance of reading and being aware of things, as people will try to make their history the truth, no matter how wrong it might be. My favorites were The Paris Review interviews which detailed a bit about his life, and writing style, in a very compact, but interesting article. The truth about his typewriter and the millions of words that have come from it. My personal favorite was that McCullough had writing shed closed to all visitors except the grandchildren, the younger the better, who he would entertain and share stories with, while trying to write.

This is probably as close to a biography about the man as we will get. While the essays are nice, the personal reflections are what makes this book. The portrait of an age where a person growing up in a middle school environment could go to museums, libraries, art shows, and be educated freely. Those days are gone forever. Typewriter tales featuring his Royal typewriter. The importance of McCullough's wife to his writing. Even the unabashed love of America, something that seems so misplaced now. To McCullough he knew we weren't what we pretended to be. But we could, and that giving up was not acceptable.

A nice collection, hopefully the first of many. Looking at my list of books I still have a McCullough left to read. I always like doing that with authors who have passed, leave one book that I can get to in the future. If one is new to McCullough start with the Brooklyn Bridge, and look forward to a lot of great reading.

David McCullough is a historian who writes the sort of histories that I do not read. Yet even given that, this book is fire.

This is a collection of McCullough's work, specifically essays, lectures, brief articles, and unpublished notes. It is about him, specifically in the form of his interview with The Paris Review, but about his thinking on his historical subjects, and his thinking on his work. Notably, it includes his thinking on his work in a broad sense of the purpose and uses of history, but also on his work in a technical sense of the craft of writing and the work of doing history.

This book is what I needed right now. McCullough, whose sole overt political act was to criticize Trump, can wend towards the Sagan-esque O Tempora, but his non-historian background grants a sort of humility and an emphasis on doing history as work, reminiscent of someone like Mike Royko or Studs Terkel.

McCullough's theory of history is that it is hard. The lesson of the past is not in the past's greatness. It is not in being comforted by past greatness. It is in embracing the hard feelings about and around what came before through fearless appraisal. America is great, but that it was not great is the secret of its greatness.

Likewise, the passages about the work of writing history (and writing in general) are focused on the nature process, effort, and the elements thereto. These are frequently pleasurable elements in his avaricious attitude towards books as a cornerstone to learning how to write, but come back to a repeated pressure to do the work that goes into writing; to care about the work that goes into the writing, in a variety of different ways.

About the only part that does not hit is some of the short biographical studies that are included in the book. While the ones like on Truman work in precis for his grander projects, others feel like an attempt to provide a representational section for his writing, and just do not fit here.

It is super. I had to force myself not to read it in a single sitting. It has already changed how I write, like what you are reading right now.

My thanks, and my condolences, to the editors, Dorie McCullough Lawson and Michael Hill, for collecting the material, and to the publisher, Simon & Schuster, for making the ARC available to me.

this was a beautifully done collection of essays and how it had that writing style that I was wanting from David McCullough. It was everything that I was looking for and had that writing style that I expected from David McCullough and glad I got to read this.

David McCullough is one of my favorite authors. I have read all of his books and own most of them, and so I thoroughly enjoyed the insights into his life presented in this collection of essays, interviews and speeches. I did a lot of highlighting and note-taking, as this book is full of wisdom and quotable lines. It was interesting to learn about his writing and research process, and his thoughts on the importance of history and how it is shared. I especially enjoyed the chapters on George Washington (who I always wish McCullough had written a book about) and Harry Truman (Truman being my favorite book by McCollough).

The best parts of the book, for me, were the personal anecdotes and stories. The fact that he wrote on a second-hand typewriter. That he managed to write one line of a JFK speech. That he started a book about Picasso but never finished because he disliked his subject (and that McCollough was something of an artist himself). I loved learning that he and his wife would read drafts of his books to each other to help with the editing process. You really have to love someone to read a 900+ page book like Truman aloud together! Due to the nature of this book, the writing was not the same lyrical style as his novels, which is what makes most of his books 5 star reads for me. For those who aren't familiar with McCullough's work, this book might not be very interesting, but for a fan, this was an enjoyable, solid 4 star read!

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced digital copy of this book. All opinions are my own.