David McCullough

Christmas Eve, 1941. Mere days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met at the White House. As war raged throughout the world, the two leaders delivered a powerful message of hope that still resonates today. Bestselling author and renowned historian David McCullough relates a compelling story about the spirit of Christmas and the power of light to shine in difficult,...

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of John Adams. On May 15th, 2003 David McCullough presented The Course of Human Events as The 2003 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities in Washington, DC. The Jefferson Lecture is a tribute to McCullough's lifetime investigation of history. In this short speech, this master historian tracks his fascination with all things historical to his early days in Pittsburgh where he "learned to love history by way...

He was bumbling, yet ambitious. He volunteered to serve his country, but insisted on being reimbursed for expenses. He owned five sets of dentures--even a set from pigs' teeth--but not one of them wooden. He was the most famous general of the Revolution, but a dismal tactician on the battelfield. His overall record was 3 wins, and 9 losses--but his retreat was brilliant. George Washington has been sculpted, painted, emulated and deified for more than...

"Best-selling author David McCullough tells the story of the settlers who began America's migration west, overcoming almost-unimaginable hardships to build in the Ohio wilderness a town and a government that incorporated America's highest ideals"-- Provided by publisher.

When The Civil War, originally premiered in September 1990, the response was phenomenal and the series became a national viewing event. The film interweaves thousands of photographs and paintings with the words of those who lived through the war that shattered a union and shaped a nation: politicians, generals, common soldiers, slaves and free slaves, the famous and the forgotten, male and female.

The episode begins with the presidential election of 1864 that sets Abraham Lincoln against his old commanding general, George McClellan. The stakes are nothing less than the survival of the Union itself: with Grant and Sherman stalled at Petersburg and Atlanta, opinion in the North has turned strongly against the war. But 11th-hour victories at Mobile Bay, Atlanta, and the Shenandoah Valley tilt the election to Lincoln and the Confederacy’s last...

Episode six begins with a biographical comparison of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee and then chronicles the extraordinary series of battles that pitted the two generals against each other from the wilderness to Petersburg in Virginia. In 30 days, the two armies lose more men than both sides have lost in three years of war. With Grant and Lee finally deadlocked at Petersburg, we visit the ghastly hospitals north and south and follow General Sherman’s...

This episode opens with a dramatic account of the turning point of war: the Battle of Gettysburg, the greatest ever fought in the Western Hemisphere. For three days 150,000 men will fight to the death in the Pennsylvania countryside, culminating in Pickett’s legendary charge. This extended episode then goes on to chronicle the fall of Vicksburg, the New York draft riots, the first use of black troops, and the western battles at Chickamauga, Georgia...

The episode begins with William Tecumseh Sherman’s brilliant march to the sea, which brings the war to the heart of Georgia and the Carolinas and spells the end of the Confederacy. In March, following Lincoln’s second inauguration, first Petersburg and then Richmond finally fall to Grant’s army. Lee’s tattered Army of Northern Virginia flees westward towards a tiny crossroads town called Appomattox Court House. There the dramatic and deeply...

Based on a true story. A half-blind ex-prizefighter and mustang breaker team up with a millionaire and his rough-hewn, undersized horse, Seabiscuit. The men bring Seabiscuit to incredible heights, helping to turn a long shot into a legend. Eventually, Seabiscuit earns Horse of the Year honors in 1938.