Customer Reviews

The Course of Human Events

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a high school history teacher - not the type of history teacher who got into it so he could also coach. I am a REAL history teacher. I love history, I read histories for entertainment. I go on trips to see historical places. History is exciting and important to me.

McCullough's wonderful 40 minute speech on the Founding Fathers, history and great literature made my soul sing. I learned a lot but mostly I found the joy of listening to a kindred spirit discuss history and its importance and the joys of learning.

I also found myself being a bit envious of McCullough's wonderful speaking voice and the fact that he writes so well. However, I quickly recovered since McCullough is not stingy with either of these talents.

Do not let the relatively short length of this CD deter you from purchasing it - you will want to listen to it again and again over the years.

I love David McCullough and I own all of his books. I have had the opportunity to hear him speak twice and both times he was brilliant, original, gracious and interesting. I am pleased that other speeches of his are available for purchase.
This CD is broken into chapters so you can skip to your favorite sections. Section 3 with the quote by Edith Hamilton and section 9 where Mr. McCullough discusses how he fell in love with reading are my favorites. I plan to give this CD as a gift. I enjoyed it tremendously.

To say that David McCullough has a way with words is like describing Mozart as having a way with music. McCullough has an ear for language and the spoken word the same way a wonderful photographer has an eye for a picture- it is just perfect.

McCullough gives us a precious gift with THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS as he describes his career and its subjects. He reminds us that we can only live in the present even while we study "other people's present". This CD is worth listening to and listening to again as we catch the rythmn of his words and a picture of our nation speeding by into the past.

Simon and Schuster is getting a bit greedy here. The McCullough lecture for $8.99? Come on. It is available online for free at the National Endowment for History website. NEH.gov under the Jefferson Lecture. Amazon needs to be more stern with these publishers and stop this kind of thievery.

Having read and enjoyed ALL of the great David McCullough books, I felt cheated by this one. It should not be sold as a "Book".
It is a very thin cup of tea - and a very short one at that. It does not contain the kind of careful research to which we avid McCullougs readers have become accostumed. It is merely a very small and somewhat random collection of the thoughts of others.

David McCullough delivers an inspirational overview of our country's rich history, reminding us that our leaders past and present were/are human, yet were able to rise to the challenges and exemplify the best that man's character has to offer

There is nothing better than hearing an accomplished author speak about his craft in his own words. He is a terrific author of history and his sincerety and love of his craft is abundantly apparent in this CD...

I was very disappointed to have paid $8+ (June 2011) for the Kindle "book" with this title. This is NOT a book, rather the text of a nice lecture by David McCullough that is a very short read. This is not at all very clear in the description of the "book" on the Amazon website. I see the paperback version is now less than $4.- perhaps Amazon has now tried to adjust the price to the actual content. However, I think that buyers ought to clearly understand what they are buying. One will note that no book summary with the actual number of papers is provided.

I think of learning about speeches back in college. It is generally accepted that the principle purpose of a speech will usually fall into one of four basic types: Informative, Demonstrative, Persuasive, and Entertaining. Of course, many times, there is also some overlap.

Listening to David McCullough in this lecture was certainly "persuasive." He gets you to love history and to want to read about it. And he did just that. The subject matter concerning the founding fathers was simply his medium to do that, although quite interesting and also informative!

I went on from this lecture to reading three of his books so far, all on Audio CD. These were "Truman" and "John Adams," and "The Johnstown Flood." I have already bought "The Great Bridge" and I am trying to make time to read it in the midst of all else I am doing.

He is truly enjoyable! I am glad I picked up some of the lifetime fascination he has had with history. I hope to continue!

David McCullough is an unbelievable author and presenter. This 45 minute presentation is a very interesting piece and one that even folks with little interest in history may find interesting only because of the angle that Mr. McCullough provides on the early history of the U.S. He packs quite the punch into a few moments and it honestly left me wanting to hear more even though he really gets all his points across. I wish he was the voice for all of his work--having enjoyed Johnstown Flood as a book on tape. Well worth the download or purchase.