Author David McCollough in Utah Today

Author David McCollough in Utah Today


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Sam Penrod Reporting Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough is in Utah today. McCollough is well known for his biography of John Adams, Harry Truman and his latest book, 1776.

No one thinks they are making history because no one thinks they are in the past. That's what author David McCullough says we can all learn from the founding fathers of America.

David McCullough, Author: "They were living in the present, just as we do. The great difference is it was their present. Not ours, and just as they don't know how things are going to turn out, we don't either."

Speaking today at BYU, McCullough says studying history is part of being an American.

David McCullough, Author: "Just voting is not what you need for citizenship. Citizenship is knowing the history of our country, part of patriotism. How can you say you love something if you love this country your state or city and you don't know how it came to be?"

As for his award winning books, McCullough says it's not the research and writing that's important, it's the thinking.

David McCullough, Author: "You have to think about where are you going to begin? Where are you going to end? In what spirit are you going to end? You have to think a lot about what you are going to leave out. You don't take everything you've got and dump it in the book, that would make a dreadful book."

As for the most important event in American History, McCullough says no doubt, it's the revolutionary era of 1776.

David McCullough, Author: "It's what brought us into being. If you are there, understanding that, you are present at the creation. Nothing like it had ever happened before and the world has been different as a consequence, and all of us are the beneficiary of that time."

David McCollough is twice the winner of both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

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