The avuncular, two-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and two-time winner of the National Book Award is a beloved national icon. I wish every school curriculum would embrace his argument that history should be taught less by red-letter dates and more by stories, insights, and anecdotes in the full cultural context of the times.
McCullough also happens to be an absorbing biographer. He is a gifted wordsmithβlike Ernest Hemingway, he got his start as a sportswriterβas well as an exceptionally thoughtful historian. Of special note, his broad reach extends beyond politics, diplomacy, and warfare to matters of technology, medicine, travel, architecture, friendships, romance, climate, fashion, nutrition, economics, and more.
To my thinking, he is the most empathic and well-rounded historian and biographer out there. His portrait of John Adams scroll down for my review is my favorite biography of all time. Prior to cracking it, I was puzzled by all the praise my well-read friends were heaping on it.
I wondered why anyone would want to read a biography of the little-regarded second U. Finally, out of gnawing curiosity, I picked it up and began reading for myself.
Now I knew. What a splendid book John Adams is. Unfortunately, is not in the same league, and its title is somewhat misleading. It is not a chronicle of the year Though it reads fast, it consists essentially of an account of the Continental Army led by George Washingtonβbut only for eighteen months or so of the seven or eight years of the Revolutionary War.
