The David McCullough books in order cover disasters, engineering achievements, presidents, war, invention, and the people who shaped American history. McCullough was an American historian and biographer known for turning extensive archival research into vivid narrative nonfiction.
His work ranges from the Johnstown Flood and the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and Panama Canal to biographies of Harry S. Truman and John Adams. McCullough received two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Jump to:
- David McCullough Books in Order
- Selected Books with Contributions by David McCullough
- David McCullough Book-to-Screen Adaptations
- About David McCullough
David McCullough Books in Order
There are 15 separately published books credited to David McCullough, including histories, biographies, essay collections, a published lecture, and a short illustrated historical narrative. They are all standalones, so you can choose the subject that interests you most. The list below is in publication order.
If you want to follow McCullough’s development as a writer, start with The Johnstown Flood and continue in order. John Adams and 1776 overlap around the American Revolution, but they aren’t a formal series. I recommend reading John Adams first if you want to follow publication order, though either book can stand alone.
For presidential biography, start with Truman or John Adams. For the American Revolution, choose 1776. Readers interested in engineering and large public works may prefer The Great Bridge or The Path Between the Seas, while The Johnstown Flood is the obvious starting point for disaster history. The Course of Human Events and In the Dark Streets Shineth are the shortest books.
- The Johnstown Flood (1968)
- The Great Bridge (1972)
- The Path Between the Seas (1977)
- Mornings on Horseback (1981)
- Brave Companions (1991)
- Truman (1992)
- John Adams (2001)
- The Course of Human Events (2004)
- 1776 (2005)
- In the Dark Streets Shineth (2010)
- The Greater Journey (2011)
- The Wright Brothers (2015)
- The American Spirit (2017)
- The Pioneers (2019)
- History Matters (2025)
History Matters was published posthumously. McCullough’s daughter Dorie McCullough Lawson and his longtime researcher Michael Hill assembled and edited the collection, which includes selected essays by McCullough, some published in the book for the first time.
Selected Books with Contributions by David McCullough
McCullough also contributed essays to several multi-author books. These optional titles aren’t part of the 15-book list above.
- Character Above All: Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush (1996). Includes McCullough’s essay on Harry S. Truman.
- What If?: The World’s Foremost Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (1999). Includes McCullough’s essay “What the Fog Wrought: The Revolution’s Dunkirk, August 29, 1776.”
- Records of Our National Life: American History at the National Archives (2009). Includes a commemorative essay by McCullough.
David McCullough Book-to-Screen Adaptations
The 1995 HBO television film Truman adapts McCullough’s biography of Harry S. Truman. Gary Sinise stars as Truman, with Diana Scarwid as Bess Truman. The film follows the book’s broad biographical arc, but its feature-length format leaves out much of the historical and personal detail in McCullough’s book.
The seven-part 2008 HBO miniseries John Adams stars Paul Giamatti as John Adams and Laura Linney as Abigail Adams. Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman served as executive producers. The series draws from McCullough’s biography and follows Adams from the years before American independence through his presidency and retirement. Its longer format covers the book’s main events closely, though it still condenses the chronology and shortens some episodes from Adams’s life.
About David McCullough
David McCullough was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1933 and studied English literature at Yale University. He worked for the United States Information Agency, American Heritage, and other publications before turning to books. His first book, The Johnstown Flood, established the research-heavy storytelling style that became his signature.
McCullough won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Truman and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for John Adams. He received the 1978 National Book Award for The Path Between the Seas and the 1982 National Book Award for Mornings on Horseback, which was also a 1982 Pulitzer Prize finalist. In 2006, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
He was also a familiar voice on television and in documentary film. McCullough hosted Smithsonian World and The American Experience, narrated documentaries including Ken Burns’s The Civil War, and provided the narrator’s voice in the film Seabiscuit.
McCullough continued writing on a Royal Standard typewriter throughout his career. He died in August 2022 at age 89, leaving a body of work that brought major events and historical figures to life for generations of readers.
Looking for similar books in order?
If you want more authors and reading-order guides like this one, start with my Books in Order index.