1776 David McCullough

“There was a great to-do for about 25 years about how young people today don't like to read and don't like books, so you have to dumb down the vocabulary, increase the number of illustrations, so forth and so on. It was conventional wisdom in academics and among publishers. Then along came Harry Potter and blew all that misconception out of the water. Of course, young people will read something if it is appealing, if it's compelling. They're human beings. I think by nature, we really instinctively love history. Our great stories are all once upon a time. We want to hear what our parents remember from childhood. We want to go to movies that are somewhat historical in nature. The two most popular movies of all time: Gone with the Wind and Titanic. That's not just coincidental.”

When I read that quote from David McCullough my first thought was, but he left out Star Wars, then it hit me that his grammar made the statement inaccurate. Then I began wondering if it was a misquotation since I don’t see a historian of McCullough’s caliber making that type of factual and grammatical error. Bringing up Harry Potter in front of Congress though was enough to grab my attention so I threw his name into the “if I get time, I’ll read something of his” pile. Then my neighborhood book club read “1776’ but I didn’t have time to join them since I was in school and busy with schoolwork. So, when I ended up looking at a 600 mile drive over 3 days, and 1776 was available as an audio book, I grabbed it.
For a history, it was interesting and McCullough does make it come alive. I didn’t realize just how much of the American Revolution was in that single year. I tend to think of the Revolution lasting from 1776 to 1783 and it all gets spread out in my mind. Concentrating on just the single year made for an interesting drive. I couldn’t wait to get back in the car for the next segment.