On August 7, the world lost one of the outstanding figures in the history of historiography: David McCullough, perhaps the finest practitioner in our time of the historian's art. He was 89.

I suspect a few folks on this page are familiar with at least some of his work. I have read seven of his 13 books, and every one of them is magnificent. He is a standard by which all modern English-language historians can be judged, and against which nearly all of them fall noticeably short.

Here is a good obituary:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituarie...n-history/

May this great exemplar and expositor rest in peace.

(08-08-2022 09:48 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  On August 7, the world lost one of the outstanding figures in the history of historiography: David McCullough, perhaps the finest practitioner in our time of the historian's art. He was 89.

I suspect a few folks on this page are familiar with at least some of his work. I have read seven of his 13 books, and every one of them is magnificent. He is a standard by which all modern English-language historians can be judged, and against which nearly all of them fall noticeably short.

Here is a good obituary:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituarie...n-history/

May this great exemplar and expositor rest in peace.

Yeah, this is a great loss.

I feel so much wiser after finishing one of his books.

I hate to put this on him, but some of his anecdotes have been in my repertoire of ways to stay on topic at a cocktail, but to veer off into a different direct. I mean that with the deepest admiration and respect, and sense of loss for our (especially Rice) culture

George, you will need to step up your game in his honor.