Pulitzer Winner Promotes History

David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and the face of PBS documentary “The American Experience,” said yesterday that Americans need to consider history during difficult times like the present—not just as an example of how to act—but as a source of optimism.

“A great deal about our country has changed since Sept. 11,” he said to an overflowing crowd at the Kennedy School of Government’s ARCO Forum last night. “But everything hasn’t changed—our history hasn’t changed. Our history is an inexhaustible source of strength.”

McCullough started with a joke, saying that he was happy to be at Harvard University, “which I look at with total dispassion, having gone happily to Yale.”

But he went on to give a moving speech about the importance of a thorough understanding of the past, quoting President Harry S Truman in saying, “The only new thing in the world is the history you don’t know.”

“History is so many things...it is certainly an aid to navigation in turbulent times,” he said.

McCullough spoke about the need to empathize with people in history, and to understand that they did not live in the past, but in “a different present”.

“[History] is about the human story, the human condition,” he said. “We have no idea how different, how hard life was then.”

McCullough himself was so devoted to empathizing with the subject of his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Truman that he ran the exact the same route President Truman ran through the Capitol upon being informed of the death of Theodore Roosevelt—even down to the time of day.

He said that learning about the personalities behind key historical events is essential, reminding the audience that Thomas Jefferson was only 33 years old when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

McCullough also praised John Adams for writing in the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachussetts that the government should provide education to its citizens.

“[Education] is the way we enlarge the experience of being alive,” he said.

Despite prompting from questioners, McCullough refused to criticize the present administration, saying “George W. Bush—I think he’s doing a very good job so far.”

“Keep in mind, please, that exceptional presidents are the exception,” he added.

He said that it was essential to remember when facing situations such as the present that America has come through much more difficult times.

“We have been through worse times than this...We can do it. We’ve done it before,” he said.

McCullough ended his speech by quoting Winston Churchill that, “We haven’t come this far because we’re made of sugar candy.”

“And he wasn’t just a great world leader—he was a historian,” he concluded.

The speech received a standing ovation. Television feeds set up around the galleries could not accommodate the crowds, and many of the people crammed into the hall had to content themselves with only hearing the speech.

Last night’s speech was the 13th in the Institute of Politics’ Theodore H. White lecture series, co-sponsored by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

McCullough will be participating in the Theodore H. White Seminar in the KSG’s Malkin Penthouse at 9 a.m. today.