I never found a single example of anyone asking him the question that brought to light the fact that he read Latin for pleasure. This struck me in writing my Truman book: It wasn’t just that the reporters all missed that Truman was going to win in 1948. I’m amazed at how few good questions are asked of our leaders. I wanted to know which presidents they take the most energy and sustenance from. I had given four or five questions to ask. Was there something worse “back then”? Yes! And this is the most dangerous time? No!ĭuring the recent presidential campaign, 60 Minutes asked candidates about their view of presidential history. Would that be called a simpler time? Would the Civil War, or the Great Depression? They say that this is the greatest economic slump since the Great Depression. No one knows where it came from or how long it’s going to stay or how to get rid of it. Imagine being in our country in 1918, and 500,000 people have died of a disease. I’m very annoyed when I hear people who ought to know better flannelling away about how it was a simpler time “back then.” There was no simpler time. But to suggest that this time is more fraught than others is not right. What surprises me is that people aren’t angrier. We have some grave problems, and I think the most serious are lamentable shifts in the fairness of our society. It is a very difficult, very dangerous time. HBR: Are we in a special or particularly fraught moment in our history? A turning point? , about Americans in Paris, and who says he is “fired up” to start his next book. (“If you think you are, you’ll get yourself in trouble.”) He is a storyteller first, who, at 79, is celebrating the success of his most recent book, The Greater Journey Still, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of popular and praised histories of Harry Truman, John Adams, and Theodore Roosevelt, among others, doesn’t consider himself an expert on anything. Americans now hear their history in David McCullough’s clarion voice, the one that narrated the acclaimed Civil Warĭocumentary series.

David mccullough theodore roosevelt