From Alexander von Humboldt to Charles and Anne Lindbergh, these are
stories of people of great vision and daring whose achievements continue
to inspire us today, brilliantly told by master historian David
McCullough.
The bestselling author of Truman and John Adams, David McCullough
has written profiles of exceptional men and women past and present who
have not only shaped the course of history or changed how we see the
world but whose stories express much that is timeless about the human
condition.
Here are Alexander von Humboldt, whose epic explorations of South
America surpassed the Lewis and Clark expedition; Harriet Beecher Stowe,
"the little woman who made the big war"; Frederic Remington; the
extraordinary Louis Agassiz of Harvard; Charles and Anne Lindbergh, and
their fellow long-distance pilots Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Beryl
Markham; Harry Caudill, the Kentucky lawyer who awakened the nation to
the tragedy of Appalachia; and David Plowden, a present-day photographer
of vanishing America.
Different as they are from each other, McCullough's subjects have in
common a rare vitality and sense of purpose. These are brave companions:
to each other, to David McCullough, and to the reader, for with rare
storytelling ability McCullough brings us into the times they knew and
their very uncommon lives.
