Westmont Brings Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author to Santa Barbara

American historian and bestselling author David McCullough will be the guest at Westmont’s annual President’s Breakfast, Friday, Feb. 10. McCullough will speak about, “The Spirit of 1776 Then and Now,” at 7 a.m. in the Grand Ballroom at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort.

Tickets are $50 and can be purchased by calling (805) 565-6895 or by visiting www.westmont.edu/breakfast.
McCullough has won the Pulitzer Prize twice. His most recent book, “1776,” is a New York Times and Amazon bestseller. It tells the intensely human story of those who marched with George Washington to battle against the world’s most powerful empire during the most important year of our country’s history.

His other books include “The Johnstown Flood,” “The Great Bridge,” “The Path Between the Seas,” “Mornings on Horseback,” “Brave Companions,” “Truman,” and “John Adams.”

McCullough has also been a host on public television’s “Smithsonian World, The American Experience.” He’s narrated several documentaries including Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” and “Napoleon.” He also lent his voice as the narrator in the motion picture “Seabiscuit.”

The Westmont Foundation and area businesses sponsor the President’s Breakfast. It is intended to bring thoughtful leaders of varying ideologies to Santa Barbara to promote discussion and consideration of current issues.

“The impetus for this program is Westmont’s commitment to searching for the truth and learning to think well about what matters, what has consequence and substance, what is important and worth giving our lives for,” said Westmont President Stan D. Gaede. “We encourage our students to embrace this search not only while they are in college, but throughout their lives. They learn to respect those with whom they disagree while pursuing those things that hold significance and value.”

This annual event and the ongoing Westmont Downtown Conversations series of lectures at the University Club are college efforts to reach out to the larger Santa Barbara and Montecito communities.

Tied to the breakfast is a Westmont Downtown Conversation discussion on McCullough’s book “1776” with Rick Pointer, Westmont history professor. “Patriotism in America and the Importance of Compromise” will explore such issues as the nature and power of patriotism and the centrality of the tradition of compromise in the American experience. The Downtown Conversation is free and open to the public, Wednesday, Feb. 15 at the University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara St., at 5:30 p.m.