![]() ![]() Significantly, McCullough built both biographies around his “just-so” findings. In John Adams, it was a quote from Thomas Jefferson calling Adams “a colossus of independence.” In Truman, it was a “TOP SECRET” 1945 War Department document backing up HST’s previously unconfirmed and suspiciously sky-high casualty estimates for the planned invasion of Japan. In both books, McCullough, a non-academic popularizer, purportedly discovered gold that had eluded generations of dogged history professors. ![]() ![]() The false step in John Adams is a virtual copycat of the foul-up in Truman. Whether the errors were calculated or merely the result of reckless research is explored below. But based on mistakes in his two latest biographies-the current best-selling John Adams and the 1992 blockbuster Truman-McCullough may be on a slippery slope to the minors. David McCullough has not yet claimed landing at Omaha Beach or hitting a game-winning grand slam for his high school baseball team. ![]()
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