McCollough Worries About Future if Past Is Forgotten

Hillel Italie, in the Indianapolis Star (5-29-05):

As his latest book, "1776," arrives in stores, he's been thinking a lot about the birth of the country and what people know about it. The kids at Josiah Haynes seem pretty on top of their studies, even though not all know why 1776 is important. But McCullough worries that the United States is in a deep and dangerous crisis...

..."I find it terribly sad and worrisome when I meet people who come here from elsewhere in the world and know more about American history than people I talk to on college and university campuses," he said during an interview at the historic Longfellow House in Cambridge, Mass...

..."I have been asked countless times why there is this vogue for books on the founding fathers," says Chernow, whose next book will be a biography of Washington. "I have contrived all sorts of fancy and esoteric explanations for the phenomenon, but I could also make the argument that the answer boils down to two words: David McCullough."