• Renowned historian David McCullough speaks at Baylor

    David McCullough at Baylor

    If you can name only one living historian, there’s a good chance it’s David McCullough.

    The 83-year-old author has won two Pulitzer Prizes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom; written 10 books (including such best-sellers as Truman and 1776); narrated documentaries such as Ken Burns’ Civil War series; and had two of his works translated for television by HBO. And on Monday, he was an honored guest at Baylor.

    McCullough spoke to a warm crowd in Baylor’s Waco Hall Monday afternoon as he gave the 2016 Beall-Russell Lecture. Speaking without notes for more than an hour, McCullough focused on the importance of studying history (and how to best go about.)

    “We have a serious problem with how little our young people know about the history of their own country,” he said. “We have raised two or three generations of students who are historically illiterate. … The best leaders we’ve had have been students who were lifelong readers of history.”

    That drive to learn, he said, starts at home, builds inside of each individual, and should be nurtured by educational institutions at every level.

    “How we’re raised at home is of much more importance than we’ve been led to understand. Those values you’re raised on at home will stay with you the rest of your life,” he explained.

    “Curiosity is, in many ways, what separates us from the cabbages. It’s the drive that comes from knowing something — and wanting to know more.” Later, he added that, “We are, to a greater degree than we realize, what we read.”

    The Beall-Russell Lectures in the Humanities were established in 1982 with a donation from Virginia B. Ball to provide opportunities for Baylor students and faculty to learn from lecturers renowned in the humanities. Ball named the lecture series in honor of her mother, Mrs. John A. Beall, and Lily Russell, former dean of women at Baylor. Past lecturers have included poet Maya Angelou, author Amy Tan, journalist Timothy Egan and author Czeslaw Milosz, who won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature.

    Sic ’em, David McCullough!