History Matters
I stopped cold when I saw the book title, History Matters. In our political world, where book banning takes place and the unseemly aspects of American history are ignored, history matters! Then I was thrilled when I realized it was by David McCullough, one of my favorite history writers. What makes McCullough’s book unique is that it was published after his death. McCullough died in August of 2022, and his family gathered some of his life stories and writings about his love of and belief in the value of history.
History Matters allows you to not only hear from David McCullough, but also from his daughter and others who share McCullough’s life and stories from another perspective. If you haven’t read his books on Harry Truman and George Washington, youwill gain his unique perspective on both presidents. History Matters also helps the reader learn the techniques for reading and evaluating history. The book also gives you a glimpse into a historian’s writing process. The subtle, descriptive moments in which he talks about his study preparation motivated me.
I found History Matters spiritually helpful because, as Presbyterian Christians, we value the historical Biblical knowledge necessary to discern divine truth. McCullough shares some of his ability to ask meaningful questions that discern fact from mythology or outright falsehoods. Even the Bible requires hard questions, because the writers were not writing history, but persuasive literature. Our questions of the text help us learn the historical implications of scripture, even when the writer did not intend it. David McCullough’s book provided new, if subtle, insights into how to read, question, and formulate historical ideas that have influenced my reading of the Bible. I hope you enjoy History Matters as much as I did.