September 18, 2024 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, renowned historian David McCullough answers the question - about a most extraordinary group of men at a most extraordinary time in world history.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
And we continue with our American stories up next to
a story from one of our great and departed historians,
and we try to keep his voice alive because it
was so unique, the great David McCullough. And we want
to thank the John Adams Institute in the Netherlands for
providing and sharing this audio with us. This was a
speech McCullough gave before he died in the Netherlands at
(00:35):
the Institute on how our founders weren't like ordinary men
and why we must know our history.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
They weren't just like we are. We can never assume
they were just They were nothing like we are in
many many ways. And one of the ways I tried
to get inside their lives was to try and read
not just what they wrote, but what they read. So
I tried to read all the writers that Abigail and
John read, Defoe, Swift, Pope, Servante, Shakespeare. And what's so
(01:11):
fascinating is to see how often they are not just
picking up ideas or turns of phrases, but whole sentences,
whole thoughts that come word for word out of that
English literature. I think you can understand people unless you
understand where they came from. Where they grew up, the vernacular,
the language, the things that you know, the sort of
(01:35):
rules to live by. Talk to them by their parents.
You know the old famous line of Harry Trumans, if
you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
That's a common expression in western Missouri. That's not Harry Truman.
And you learn so far more about life. That's why
I think when students are not interested in history, when
(01:55):
history is poorly taught and turns the students away, they
are failing to have it, to get the chance to
better understand how life works, the role of cause and
effect in life. For example, Well, if they don't know
about cause and effect in history, they might not get
the idea that happens in your own life. I'll give
(02:18):
you one of my favorite examples. We know that transportation
was very slow and difficult in that time, and by
our terms that means inconvenience, a nuisance, discomfort. How did
they put up with it? It must have been so hard
for them, Yes, it was all of that. We think
of transportation and communications two different things, two different worlds.
(02:41):
To them, it was one because nothing could be communicated
faster than somebody on a fast horse. And if you
were out of touch with your husband, let's say, or
out of touch with your government back in the United States,
and you were making decisions here that was going that
we're going to affect the lives of your countrymen, your
(03:04):
family at home, the outcome of a deadly war. If
you're going to make a decision about whether to have
your children inoculated for smallpox, and you can't pick up
the phone or get on the internet, or send a
fax or fed ex to get instant communication, what does
(03:26):
that mean. It means it increases by geometric perforce proportions
your individual burden of responsibility. You can't spread the guilt
or the responsibility. Abigail Adams has to decide, I'm going
to take my children in and have them innoculated for smallpox,
(03:46):
knowing that at best it'll make them wretchedly ill. At
worst they might die from it, some of them. I
can't call up my husband say come on home on
the next plane. We've got to do this together. Just
as when John Adams is here and he decides on
April nineteenth, on the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington
and Conquered, to submit his memento, his memo to the
(04:11):
government here stating what he is here for, against the
diplomatic conventions and timing taking a very bold, very brash,
perhaps dangerous route. He doesn't he can't call up the
State department or share his opinions with fellow ambassadors in
(04:35):
France or England or whatever. He has to assume complete
responsibility for it. That's different. That's very different. They didn't
live in a world of twenty four hours a day
news coverage. They didn't live in a world where one's
reputation could be made or broken in twenty four hours.
(04:57):
They didn't have anything like the speed of transportation or communication.
It was different. They lived with death all around them
all the time. Imagine going to the dentist in the
eighteenth century. Imagine sleeping in places that were filled with lice.
(05:18):
It was a different time. We have no idea how
tough those people were, how hard life was for them
just in ordinary times, let alone in times of difficulty
and stress. You can't understand what happened without understanding them,
And you can't understand them without understanding what we would
(05:39):
call the culture around them. I wish there were a
better word than culture. It's too fancy, it's too precious.
It means the architecture, the newspapers, the music, what they ate.
Do you ever notice how few biographers ever could give
their subjects a chance to sit down and have something
to eat. Do you ever notice how few biographers ever
(06:02):
suggest that there were many days that were extremely boring,
or to suggest that maybe there were moments when they
didn't have the faintest idea what to do next. That's
life and it has to be understood. But you also
have to understand what's in here, just as Abigail suggested.
So I want to finish my remarks not by reading
(06:25):
something to you about history or about the United States
of America, but about living, about life, about a human
being who once was here and from whom we can
learn an immense amount. In the aftermath of September eleventh
in our country, there were people on television, people writing
(06:48):
in the newspapers who were saying, this is the darkest,
most dangerous, most uncertain time we have ever been through.
And September eleventh was, without question the worst day for
our country in our history, more so than Pearl Harbor,
because Pearl Harbor was a military target, and there was
(07:10):
some expectation that something of the kind could conceivably happen.
It wasn't a slaughter of innocent people just to make
a point. But it isn't the darkest time, not by
a long shot. One of the darkest times was the
year seventeen seventy six, when Washington's army was down to
(07:33):
less than four thousand men, about five hundred six hundred
of whom were too sick almost to walk, when it
looked as though the war was over and we had lost.
But there were enough of them, and most conspicuously George Washington,
who did not see it that way, thank god. Another
(07:58):
time was late nineteen forty one early nineteen forty two,
when Hitler's armies were at Moscow, when Britain was on
her last legs, when we had no army. Our recruits
were drilling with wooden rifles, so all they had. Half
(08:19):
of our navy had been destroyed at Pearl Harbor. We
had no air force, and there was no guarantee whatsoever
that the Nazi machine could be stopped and destroyed. That
was a far darker time, but there were enough people
who kept the faith. And my message is this, we
(08:42):
are up against a foe, all of us who believes
in enforced ignorance, and we don't and we never with.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And you've been listening to the late great biog David
McCullough tell the story of why storytelling matters, particularly the
story of America, imperfect people all And McCullough says that
over and over again. And then he talks about dark times,
and we hear this over and over again today. These
are the toughest times. America has never been more divided.
(09:19):
Just read seventeen seventy six, you'll feel differently. Read anything
about the Civil War and you'll know differently. Or read
about nineteen forty one and forty two as McCullough suggested.
And by the way, the new Foe McCullough properly identified
enforced ignorance. David McCullough on our founders and how they
(09:41):
were not like anybody else in world history. Here on
our American story
And we continue with our American stories up next to
a story from one of our great and departed historians,
and we try to keep his voice alive because it
was so unique, the great David McCullough. And we want
to thank the John Adams Institute in the Netherlands for
providing and sharing this audio with us. This was a
speech McCullough gave before he died in the Netherlands at
(00:35):
the Institute on how our founders weren't like ordinary men
and why we must know our history.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
They weren't just like we are. We can never assume
they were just They were nothing like we are in
many many ways. And one of the ways I tried
to get inside their lives was to try and read
not just what they wrote, but what they read. So
I tried to read all the writers that Abigail and
John read, Defoe, Swift, Pope, Servante, Shakespeare. And what's so
(01:11):
fascinating is to see how often they are not just
picking up ideas or turns of phrases, but whole sentences,
whole thoughts that come word for word out of that
English literature. I think you can understand people unless you
understand where they came from. Where they grew up, the vernacular,
the language, the things that you know, the sort of
(01:35):
rules to live by. Talk to them by their parents.
You know the old famous line of Harry Trumans, if
you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
That's a common expression in western Missouri. That's not Harry Truman.
And you learn so far more about life. That's why
I think when students are not interested in history, when
(01:55):
history is poorly taught and turns the students away, they
are failing to have it, to get the chance to
better understand how life works, the role of cause and
effect in life. For example, Well, if they don't know
about cause and effect in history, they might not get
the idea that happens in your own life. I'll give
(02:18):
you one of my favorite examples. We know that transportation
was very slow and difficult in that time, and by
our terms that means inconvenience, a nuisance, discomfort. How did
they put up with it? It must have been so hard
for them, Yes, it was all of that. We think
of transportation and communications two different things, two different worlds.
(02:41):
To them, it was one because nothing could be communicated
faster than somebody on a fast horse. And if you
were out of touch with your husband, let's say, or
out of touch with your government back in the United States,
and you were making decisions here that was going that
we're going to affect the lives of your countrymen, your
(03:04):
family at home, the outcome of a deadly war. If
you're going to make a decision about whether to have
your children inoculated for smallpox, and you can't pick up
the phone or get on the internet, or send a
fax or fed ex to get instant communication, what does
(03:26):
that mean. It means it increases by geometric perforce proportions
your individual burden of responsibility. You can't spread the guilt
or the responsibility. Abigail Adams has to decide, I'm going
to take my children in and have them innoculated for smallpox,
(03:46):
knowing that at best it'll make them wretchedly ill. At
worst they might die from it, some of them. I
can't call up my husband say come on home on
the next plane. We've got to do this together. Just
as when John Adams is here and he decides on
April nineteenth, on the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington
and Conquered, to submit his memento, his memo to the
(04:11):
government here stating what he is here for, against the
diplomatic conventions and timing taking a very bold, very brash,
perhaps dangerous route. He doesn't he can't call up the
State department or share his opinions with fellow ambassadors in
(04:35):
France or England or whatever. He has to assume complete
responsibility for it. That's different. That's very different. They didn't
live in a world of twenty four hours a day
news coverage. They didn't live in a world where one's
reputation could be made or broken in twenty four hours.
(04:57):
They didn't have anything like the speed of transportation or communication.
It was different. They lived with death all around them
all the time. Imagine going to the dentist in the
eighteenth century. Imagine sleeping in places that were filled with lice.
(05:18):
It was a different time. We have no idea how
tough those people were, how hard life was for them
just in ordinary times, let alone in times of difficulty
and stress. You can't understand what happened without understanding them,
And you can't understand them without understanding what we would
(05:39):
call the culture around them. I wish there were a
better word than culture. It's too fancy, it's too precious.
It means the architecture, the newspapers, the music, what they ate.
Do you ever notice how few biographers ever could give
their subjects a chance to sit down and have something
to eat. Do you ever notice how few biographers ever
(06:02):
suggest that there were many days that were extremely boring,
or to suggest that maybe there were moments when they
didn't have the faintest idea what to do next. That's
life and it has to be understood. But you also
have to understand what's in here, just as Abigail suggested.
So I want to finish my remarks not by reading
(06:25):
something to you about history or about the United States
of America, but about living, about life, about a human
being who once was here and from whom we can
learn an immense amount. In the aftermath of September eleventh
in our country, there were people on television, people writing
(06:48):
in the newspapers who were saying, this is the darkest,
most dangerous, most uncertain time we have ever been through.
And September eleventh was, without question the worst day for
our country in our history, more so than Pearl Harbor,
because Pearl Harbor was a military target, and there was
(07:10):
some expectation that something of the kind could conceivably happen.
It wasn't a slaughter of innocent people just to make
a point. But it isn't the darkest time, not by
a long shot. One of the darkest times was the
year seventeen seventy six, when Washington's army was down to
(07:33):
less than four thousand men, about five hundred six hundred
of whom were too sick almost to walk, when it
looked as though the war was over and we had lost.
But there were enough of them, and most conspicuously George Washington,
who did not see it that way, thank god. Another
(07:58):
time was late nineteen forty one early nineteen forty two,
when Hitler's armies were at Moscow, when Britain was on
her last legs, when we had no army. Our recruits
were drilling with wooden rifles, so all they had. Half
(08:19):
of our navy had been destroyed at Pearl Harbor. We
had no air force, and there was no guarantee whatsoever
that the Nazi machine could be stopped and destroyed. That
was a far darker time, but there were enough people
who kept the faith. And my message is this, we
(08:42):
are up against a foe, all of us who believes
in enforced ignorance, and we don't and we never with.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And you've been listening to the late great biog David
McCullough tell the story of why storytelling matters, particularly the
story of America, imperfect people all And McCullough says that
over and over again. And then he talks about dark times,
and we hear this over and over again today. These
are the toughest times. America has never been more divided.
(09:19):
Just read seventeen seventy six, you'll feel differently. Read anything
about the Civil War and you'll know differently. Or read
about nineteen forty one and forty two as McCullough suggested.
And by the way, the new Foe McCullough properly identified
enforced ignorance. David McCullough on our founders and how they
(09:41):
were not like anybody else in world history. Here on
our American story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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