History Matters, David McCullough (edited by Dorie McCullough Lawson and Michael Hill, foreword by Jon Meacham). Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781668098998) 2025.

Summary: Essays and lectures on the importance of history, biographical vignettes, influences on the writer, and writing process.

I became a fan while reading Harry Truman. Nine hundred pages in and I didn’t want the book to end. It was not only the subject, but the writing. And so I’ve read just about everything David McCullough has written. (Looking over his publications, I discovered I somehow had missed Brave Companions. I will remedy that soon!). And so I was delighted to learn of this new, posthumous collection of his essays and lecture transcripts, edited by daughter Dorie McCullough Lawson and researcher Michael Hill.

The pieces in this collection are grouped into four parts. Firstly, apropos of the title is a section titled “why History?” He sums it up as follows:

“But, I think, what it really comes down to is that history is an extension of life. It both enlarges and intensifies the experience of being alive. It’s like poetry and art. Or music. And it’s ours, to enjoy” (p.4).

He adds, in the words of Barbara Tuchman that the key to good historiography is to “Tell stories.” He goes on to write about American values and hid long-range optimism about the country. A short essay on luck and history explores Washington’s luck with the weather in escaping the British and McCullough’s own good fortune. The final essay in this section is a transcript of his Paris Review interview with good background on his beginnings as a writer and behind the scenes glimpses of several of his books. Most interesting was his reason for not writing on Picasso–he just didn’t like him. He found when you have to spend years researching someone, it helps to like them as a person.

Part Two is titled “Figures in a Landscape.” These essays offer vignettes of Americans against the backdrop of their history: Thomas Eakins, Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Washington, and Harry Truman. The two longest ones are on Washington and Truman. Of Washington, he described his essential trait as leadership–of people and a nation. He could call people to do things beyond what they thought their capacity. Of Truman, he argues that part of his greatness was his profound sense of history. In less than twenty pages, he summarizes the strengths and flaws of the man, considering him among America’s great presidents.

In Part Three, the topic is “Influences.” He begins with the love of learning of three Yale men: Ezra Stiles, John Trumbull, and Manasseh Cutler. The latter was a pioneer in higher education on the Ohio frontier, and Ohio University’s oldest building is Cutler Hall. He offers a profile of the actor Vincent Scully. This is followed by McCullough’s account of getting a speech idea through to Arthur Schlesinger, advisor to candidate John Kennedy. In the end, one sentence made it into a speech. I was so fascinated by his profile of Paul Horgan, I found used copies of a couple of his works. He loved the writing of Herman Wouk. Of course, one essay offers a list of his favorite books. The section concludes with a delightful Christmas ritual titled “A Book on Every Bed.”

Part Four centers on McCullough’s writing process. He begins with great writing advice and his own practice of never working from an outline, which he likens to painting by number. Like many writers, he emphasizes the hard work of rewriting, describing himself as a rewriter. He offers a tribute to his Royal Standard typewriter, on which he wrote all of his books. In his advice to writers, he advises reading widely as well as deeply and this section includes an essay with more book recommendations. The final essay is on history and art, highlighting Churchill as an artist. McCullough was as well, the endpapers featuring two of his watercolors.

If McCullough is new to you, it will whet your appetite for his books (and many others as well). For others, it clarifies the values that informed McCullough’s writing–of history’s importance, of telling a good story, of living with a character long enough to bring them to life. Finally, these essays are a workshop for writers, especially of biography and history. They represent a fitting summing up of his life.