Just to be heading away from the sea, to be immersed in a beautiful landscape again, to hear the sound of crows, was such a welcome change, and all to be seen so very appealing, a land of peace and plenty, every field perfectly cultivated, hillsides bordering the river highlighted by white limestone cliffs, every village and distant château so indisputably ancient and picturesque.

In December 2012 Allegheny County Pennsylvania announced that it would rename the 16th Street Bridge in Pittsburgh in honor of McCullough. " He started it as a book about the founding fathers and back-to-back presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson; but dropped Jefferson to focus on Adams. In 2003 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected McCullough for the Jefferson Lecture the U.

McCullough's two Pulitzer Prize-winning books Truman and John Adams have been adapted by HBO into a TV film and a mini-series respectively. McCullough's most recent history The Greater Journey (2011) is about Americans in Paris from the 1830s to the 1900s.