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Thread: David McCullough Passes

  1. #1
    breath westofyou's Avatar
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    David McCullough Passes

    Damn fine writer


    “I think of writing history as an art form,” Mr. McCullough said in an interview for “Painting With Words,” a short 2008 documentary about him on HBO. “And I’m striving to write a book that might — might — qualify as literature. I don’t want it just to be readable. I don’t want it just to be interesting. I want it to be something that moves the reader. Moves me.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/08/b...ough-dead.html

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    Member cumberlandreds's Avatar
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    Re: David McCullough Passes

    I believe I have read just about everyone of his major works. They are all good to a certain extent. Really enjoyed his two presidential biographies on Adams and Truman. I just read recently Path Between the Seas. I knew hardly anything about the building of the Panama Canal. It was very eye opening. Also his narration of The Civil War series is excellent. He is certainly one of the best at narrative biographies. RIP David McCullough.
    Reds Fan Since 1971

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    Member Kingspoint's Avatar
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    Re: David McCullough Passes

    Good!

    He was a hack and a plagiarist. Nothing but a copy-and-paste guy.

    Had a factory of writers put all of his books together for him.

    The most over-rated writer in the history of books.

    Layed down on Jefferson's bed at Monticello because he thought himself worthy of doing so.

    If you ever wanted to know something about history that was wrong, read anything he put his name to.

    Getting an endorsement from him or a forward written by him is a negative.

    His hackjob on Adams was nothing but lies, errors and poorly drawn conclusions. If you read it, you need to go find some original sources to undo the damage he did to your mind.
    "One problem with people who have no vices is that they're pretty sure to have some annoying virtues."

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    Member Kingspoint's Avatar
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    Re: David McCullough Passes

    "One problem with people who have no vices is that they're pretty sure to have some annoying virtues."

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    Future Fame of Holler WildcatFan's Avatar
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    Re: David McCullough Passes

    Re: David McCullough Passes
    Quote Originally Posted by Kingspoint View Post
    Good!
    This is the funniest thing ever posted on Redszone.
    "I never argue with people who say baseball is boring, because baseball is boring. And then, suddenly, it isn't. And that's what makes it great." - Joe Posnanski

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    Member marcshoe's Avatar
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    Re: David McCullough Passes

    Kind of funny how the most popular writers of histories may not be the most accurate. I've avoided McCullogh's latest because of an issue that's best discussed on the politics board, but I read his Panama Canal book when it first came out and used it as a basis for a paper in high school. I read Ambrose's book about Custer and Crazy Horse a couple of years ago, and there were some misstatements about things I knew (attributing Sheriden's "Good Indian" quote to Sherman, saying Hancock's "superb" nickname was given after Gettysburg but it was much earlier, on the peninsula, when McClellan was looking for absolutely anything positive to put in his report) and that made me wonder what else he had gotten wrong. (and that's not mentioning some things he said that he couldn't have known specifically weren't true, but he could have investigated further (Custer's body not being touched, Custer not having a child with a native woman).

    Anyway, my point is that it's hard to trust a single writer without checking out others.
    It is on the whole probable that we continually dream, but that consciousness makes such a noise that we do not hear it. Carl Jung.

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  12. #7
    Member Kingspoint's Avatar
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    Re: David McCullough Passes

    Quote Originally Posted by marcshoe View Post
    Kind of funny how the most popular writers of histories may not be the most accurate. I've avoided McCullogh's latest because of an issue that's best discussed on the politics board, but I read his Panama Canal book when it first came out and used it as a basis for a paper in high school. I read Ambrose's book about Custer and Crazy Horse a couple of years ago, and there were some misstatements about things I knew (attributing Sheriden's "Good Indian" quote to Sherman, saying Hancock's "superb" nickname was given after Gettysburg but it was much earlier, on the peninsula, when McClellan was looking for absolutely anything positive to put in his report) and that made me wonder what else he had gotten wrong. (and that's not mentioning some things he said that he couldn't have known specifically weren't true, but he could have investigated further (Custer's body not being touched, Custer not having a child with a native woman).

    Anyway, my point is that it's hard to trust a single writer without checking out others.
    I find that former attorneys have a great potential for being very good writers. Their understanding about the authenticity of primary sources (and their understanding of even how flawed that can be) vs secondary, third, etc. sources limits what they reference as "credible" and factual. They tend to be much better researchers.

    There is a Mark S. (Mark Shaw), former attorney in the Bay Area, who has written a great series of books on Dorothy Kilgallen (who discovered and had proof of who killed John Kennedy) before she was murdered (by the FBI/Mafia) and all of her documents were stolen by the FBI upon her death at her Manhattan apartment. Kilgallen was the nation's best investigative reporter for more than a decade (she was the most respected reporter at the Sam Shepherd trial). She was ruthlessly accurate with more quality sources than anyone in the U.S. (she reported in her 100+ Hughes-syndicated columns information in the Warren Report and called it all lies before Lyndon Johnson even read the report, which put her on his enemy list, and he went after her for it). Anyway, attorney Mark Shaw, who had met Melvin Belli, Jack Ruby's (and other mobsters) attorney, made it his personal life journey to validate the death of Dorothy Kilgallen. There are no reporters like her anymore. Everyone sucks whether it's CNN, FOX, BBC, Reuter's, Al-Jazeera, or anywhere else. About the only neutral broadcast journalist you'll find today is David Brooks. Good journalists do not write popular books. Kilgallen is the only reporter to have interviewed Jack Ruby (twice, and went immediately to New Orleans after the second interview, where the killer of JFK was it's Mafia Kingpin).

    McCullough was excellent at one thing....making money. It was his goal since his early days in Brooklyn. It's all he ever cared about, and it's all he ever focused on. He taught his daughter to do the same thing. He knew how to get himself politically connected with those who would place him in the best positions to make money through publishing connections and associations that he could exploit, who themselves (the Cincinnatus Foundation, for example) are more focused on social recognition and political prestige than on facts or historical accuracy. The world would have been much better off if McCullough had never been born as he was one of this nation's greatest spreaders of disinformation.
    Last edited by Kingspoint; 10-04-2022 at 12:32 AM.
    "One problem with people who have no vices is that they're pretty sure to have some annoying virtues."


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