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Bestselling historian David McCullough died Sunday at the age of 89 at his home in Hingham, Massachusetts, his daughter confirmed. She did not specify a cause of death. McCullough was born
in Pittsburgh in 1933, graduated from Yale in 1955, and released his first book — a history of an 1889 flood that killed over 2,000 people in Johnstown, Pennsylvania — in 1968. His 2001
biography of John Adams topped _The New York Times_' best-seller list the week of its release and inspired an HBO miniseries starring Paul Giamatti. His 1992 biography of Harry Truman
topped the list for 43 weeks and was the basis for an HBO film starring Gary Sinise. SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from
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directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. McCullough's other works included
histories of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Panama Canal, and the 1941 Arcadia Conference between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. His final book, _The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of
the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West_, sparked controversy when it was released in 2019, with _New York Times_ reviewer Joyce E. Chaplin accusing McCullough of failing to grapple
sufficiently with the settlers' violence against Native Americans. In addition to his histories, McCullough provided narration for the Ken Burns documentary _The Civil War_ and the
2003 film _Seabiscuit_ and hosted the television series _American Experience_ and _Smithsonian World_. McCullough is survived by a brother, five children, 19 grandchildren, and two
great-grandchildren. His wife, Rosalee, died in June, also at the age of 89. Explore More Speed Reads