• About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
Sunday, May 28, 2023
The Iowa Torch
  • Home
  • State Government
  • Federal Government
  • Local Government
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • State Government
  • Federal Government
  • Local Government
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Opinion
The Iowa Torch
The Iowa Torch
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

Hendrickson: Remembering David McCullough: America’s Historian

John Hendrickson: David McCullough's work will continue to be a lasting legacy. As a nation, we need his passion and respect for our great history.

John HendricksonbyJohn Hendrickson
August 13, 2022
in Opinion
Reading Time: 2 mins read
Hendrickson: Remembering David McCullough: America’s Historian

David McCullough at the 2015 Library of Congress Book Festival.
Photo Credit:
Four and Sixty via Wikimedia Commons (CC-By-SA 3.0)

This week the nation lost a treasure with the passing of David McCullough. David McCullough was America’s historian and he brought history alive through his many books. McCullough was a gifted storyteller both in his writing and his narration of American Experience documentaries such as Ken Burns, The Civil War.

RELATED POSTS

Feenstra: Standing with our men and women in blue

Miller-Meeks: Iowa is the future of renewable energy

Hendrickson & Timmons: Making Iowa more competitive through occupational licensing reform

Some of his work included biographies of Presidents John Adams and Harry S. Truman and numerous works on the American Revolution and Founding. He also wrote fascinating histories of the Johnstown Flood and the Wright Brothers, among others. “McCullough didn’t just recall history. In a sense he revived history and our interest in it,” wrote columnist Cal Thomas.

McCullough was a passionate advocate for history education. His books can be read by anyone interested in learning more about our great history. McCullough believed that we have a responsibility to understand our rich history and to be respectful of our history. “History isn’t just something that ought to be taught, read, or encouraged only because it will make us better citizens. It will make us a better citizen and it will make us more thoughtful and understanding human beings,” stated  McCullough himself.

ADVERTISEMENT

Further, he argued that “we’ve got to teach history and nurture history and encourage history because it’s an antidote to the hubris of the present—the idea that everything we have and everything we do and everything we think is the ultimate, the best.”

Our nation is suffering a crisis as a consequence of historical ignorance and outright attacks upon America’s great heritage.  McCullough understood that America’s story is filled with flaws because humans are flawed. To illustrate this point, he used the Founders as an example:

“Now those who wrote the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia that fateful summer of 1776 were not superhuman by any means. Every single one had his flaws, his failings, his weaknesses. Some of them ardently disliked others of them. Every one of them did things in his life he regretted. But the fact that they could rise to the occasion as they did, these imperfect human beings, and do what they did is also, of course, a testimony to their humanity. We are not just known by our failings, by our weaknesses, by our sins. We are known by being capable of rising to the occasion and exhibiting not just a sense of direction, but strength.”

David McCullough, America’s historian will be greatly missed, and his work will continue to be a lasting legacy. As a nation, we need his passion and respect for our great history.

Tags: David McCulloughU.S. History
ShareTweetShare
ADVERTISEMENT
Previous Post

Republicans accuse Miller of overseeing ‘taxpayer-funded slush fund’

Next Post

Report: Iowa among top three states in nation protecting political speech

John Hendrickson

John Hendrickson

John Hendrickson is the Policy Director for TEF Iowa.

Related Posts

Ginn and Hendrickson: We Need Calvin Coolidge’s Fiscal Conservatism
Opinion

Hendrickson: Calvin Coolidge, A Forgotten Champion of Labor

September 6, 2021
Report Says Iowa’s Civics and U.S. History Standards are Inadequate
Education

Report Says Iowa’s Civics and U.S. History Standards are Inadequate

July 2, 2021
Next Post

Report: Iowa among top three states in nation protecting political speech

Grassley Questions Attorney General Garland Over School Board Violence Memo

Grassley to Garland: Prioritize violent crime over political agenda

Sign-Up For Our Daily Updates

Get The Iowa Torch right in your inbox!

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!

Recommended Articles

Schultz: The Amendment That Doesn’t Do Anything

Schultz: Modernizing Iowa’s unemployment system

February 14, 2022
Grassley: Inheritance Taxes Are Bad for Farm Economy

Biden Plan Could Force Iowa Family Farms to Sell to Pay Federal Tax

August 20, 2021
Reynolds Appoints Josh Byrnes as New Iowa Utilities Board Member

Reynolds Appoints Josh Byrnes as New Iowa Utilities Board Member

November 30, 2020

Popular Stories

  • Bio Ethanol on the Way

    Miller-Meeks: Iowa is the future of renewable energy

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Harris: How to win in Iowa

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Hendrickson & Timmons: Making Iowa more competitive through occupational licensing reform

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Feenstra: Standing with our men and women in blue

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Three LGTBQ Books with Sexually Explicit Material Pulled from Waukee School

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

The Iowa Torch

The Iowa Torch​ is a for-profit, news organization that focuses on political news as it relates to Iowans

Categories

  • Education
  • Federal Government
  • Iowa History
  • Local Government
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • State Government
  • Uncategorized
  • Uncategorized

Newsletter

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!

© 2022 The Iowa Torch, a publication of 4:15 Communications, LLC.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • State Government
  • Federal Government
  • Local Government
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Opinion

© 2022 The Iowa Torch, a publication of 4:15 Communications, LLC.