McCullough’s speeches reveal author’s fervor

In “The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For” (Simon & Schuster), historian David McCullough gives us something akin to a collection of short stories. The book includes 15 speeches, dating to 1989, which McCullough gave to audiences ranging from a joint session of Congress to graduates of Michigan’s 1,500-student Hillsdale College.

The speeches, arranged in chronological order, offer a window on the man behind the weighty biographies of John Adams and Harry Truman, which won Pulitzers and remain two of his most popular works. Each speech gives a history lesson, celebrates the importance of history education or underscores the importance of civic responsibility. If the Founding Fathers rose to the occasion, his speeches suggest, so can the rest of us in less revolutionary yet important ways.

“The laws we live by, the freedoms we enjoy, the institutions that we take for granted — and we should never take for granted — are all the work of others who went before us,” he told the Hillsdale graduates in 2005.