David McCullough

"History teaches, reinforces what we believe in, what we stand for, and what we ought to be willing to stand up for. History is or should be the bedrock of patriotism, not the chest-pounding kind of patriotism but the real thing, love of country.

We are living now in an era of momentous change, of huge transitions in all aspects of life here, nationwide, worldwide and this creates great pressures and tensions. But history shows that times of change are the times when we are most likely to learn. This nation was founded on change. We should embrace the possibilities in these exciting times and hold to a steady course, because we have a sense of navigation, a sense of what we've been through in times past and who we are." -David McCullough

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Over the past week I was in Michigan at my parents' home celebrating Christmas. I was a wonderful time, one of the first times we had been together for Christmas in many years.

One of the special things we did each evening was watch an installment of the HBO series, John Adams, based on the biography of the same name by one of my heroes, David McCullough. What an interesting, talented, and enthusiast storyteller. I thoroughly enjoyed the series; almost as good as the book (Paul Giamatti and Stephen Dillane are excellent as Adams and Jefferson, respectively).

One of the unexpected pleasure of the film was a short documentary of McCullough.